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50TH Con(;kkns,1 IHJUSK of KEl'RESENTATIVKS. fMis. Pur, 

2d Session. ] \ N"- '45- 



PROCEHDINrxS IN COiXGRESS 



UPON THE ACCErTANCE dl' 



THE STATIIH OF LEWIS CASS, 



PRESENTED BY 



THE STATE OF MICHIGAN. 



U^,^. <€t^^Z%-\ 



WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE. 

1889. 



E34^ 



7 -, 



Joint resolution to authoriie the printing of the proceedings in Congress in ac- 
cepting the statue of the late Lewis Cass, an illustrious citizen, presented by the 
State of Michigan, and the statues of the late Major-General John Teter Gabriel 
Muhlenberg and Robert Fulton, illustrious citizens, presented by the State of 
Pennsylvania. 

Rcsolvt'd hy flu- Sfiiatf and Hflinc of Representatives of tlie United 
Slates of America in Congress asseinlded, Tliat there be iiriiited of the 
proceedings in Congress iijjon the acceptance of the statue of tlie late 
Lewis Cass, presented by the State of Michigan, twelve thousand five 
hundred copies, of which three thousand shall be for the use of the 
Senate and nine thousand five hundred copies for the use of the House 
of Representatives, and in a separate volume; that there be printed 
of the proceedings in Congress upon the acceptance of the statues of 
the late John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg and Robert Fulton, presented 
by the State of Pennsylvania, twelve thousand five hundred copies, 
of which three thousand shall be for the use of the Senate and nine 
thousand five hundred for the use of the House of Representatives; 
and the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby directed to have printed 
engravings of said statues to accompany said proceedings ; and for 
engraving and printing said pictures the sum of one thousand five 
hundred dollars, or so much as may be necessary, is hereby ap[)ro- 
priated out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated. 
Approved, March 2, 1889. 



ACCEPTANCE OF THE STATUE OF LEWIS CASS. 



PROCEEDINGS IN THE SENATE. 

January 21, 1889. 

The President pro tempore laid before the Senate the 
following communication ; A'hich was read : 

Executive Office, Michigan, 
Lansing, Michigan, yanuary 16, 1889. 
Dear Sir: I have the pleasure at this time to inform you, and 
through you the Senate, that in acceptance of the invitation con- 
tained in section 1814 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, 
a statue in marble of Lewis Cass has been made in pursuance of 
an act of the legislature of this State, passed at its biennial session 
in 1885, and which statue is the work of the celebrated American 
sculptor, Mr. D. C. French, of Concord, Massachusetts. The same 
has been jilaced in the old Hall of the House of Representatives at 
the Capitol of the United States in the custody of the Architect of 
such Capitol. 

This work is now presented to the Congress of the Uniteil States 
as one of the statues contributed by the State of Michigan in pursu- 
ance of the invitation aforesaid. 

I write you at this time tliat such fuitlicr action may be taken in 
the matter by Congress as may be deemed expedient. 
Very respectfully, yours, 

Cyrus G. Luce, 

Governor. 
Hon. John J. Incalls, 

President of Senate of United States, 

Washingtoti, D. C. 

3 



4 Acccptauce of the Slatuc oj Lricis Cass. 

Mr. PalmkR. Mr. President, in response to the letter I 
will state that on the mornin.!^' of February i8, at the close 
of the morning business, I shall present resolutions express- 
ive of the sense of the Senate and make a few remarks 
thereupon. 

The PR-ESiDh:NT pro /c/i/poir. Meanwhile the letter will 

lie on the table. 

February i8, i88g. 

Mr. Palmer. In accordance with the notice that I gave 
January 21, I present the resolutions I send to the desk and 
ask for their immediate consideration. 

The President pro tempore. The resolutions will be 
read. 

The Chief Clerk read as follows : 

Resolvt-d /')' //"• Saiatc {the House of Representatives eoiicurnns;). 
That the thanks of Congress be tendered to the governor, and 
through him to the people of the State of Michigan, for the statue of 
Lewis Cass, whose name is so conspicuously connected with the de- 
velopment of the Northwest Territory and with eminent services to 
his State and country botii at home and abroad. 

Resotreif, That the statue is accepted in the name of the nation 
and assigned a place in the old Hall of Representatives, and that a 
copy of these resolutions, signed by the President of the Senate and 
Speaker of the House of Representatives, be transmitted to tlje gov- 
ernor of the State of Michigan. 

Mr. Palmer. I ask for the reading of the governor's 
letter. 

The President pro tempore. It will be read. 



Acicplainc of the Statue of I.cxvis Cass. •> 

TliL' Chief Clerk read as follows : 

Executive Office, Michigan, 
Lansing, Alii/iigan, jfaniiiirv 1 6, 1 889. 

Dear Sir: I have the pleasure at this tune to inform you, and 
through you the Senate, that in acceptance of the invitation con- 
tained in section 1814 of the Revised Statutes of the United States, 
a statue in marble of Lewis Cass has been made in pursuance of 
an act of the legislature of this State, passed at its biennial session 
in 1885, and which statue is the work of the celebrated American 
sculptor, Mr. 1). C. French, of Concord, Massachusetts. The same 
has been [jlaced in the old Hall of the House of Representatives at 
the Capitol of the United States in the custody of the Architect of 
such Capitol. 

This work is now ])resented to the Congress of the Unitetl States 
as one of the statues contributed by the State of Michigan in pursu- 
ance of the invitation aforesaid. 

I write you at this time that such further action may be taken in 
the matter by Congress as may be deemed expedient. 
Very respectfully, yours, 

Cyrus G. Luce, 

GoTc-rnor. 
Hon. John J. Ingalls, 

President of Senate of United States, 

Washington, D. C. 



Acceptance of /he Sla/iie o/' Lewis Cass. 



Address of Mr. Palmer. 

Mr. President, in responding to the nation's invitation to 
the States, that each shonld place two statues of her iUus- 
trious men in Memorial Hall, there was a fitness that the 
first place should be given by a vState to one, if such there 
be, who more than any other had l)een identified with her 
infancy, who had defended her in war, who had guided her 
youthful footsteps, who had laid down for her rules of con- 
duct, who had brought order out of chaos, who, although 
separated from her by oceans, or called away by public duty, 
still clung to her as his home, and fondly looked to her soil 
as the dust with which his own was to at last commingle. 

To-day, Mr. President, we formally accept Michigan's 
first contribution to the Valhalla of the nation, and it is but 
seemly that the reasons for her action should be recited. 

Lewis Cas.s was born in Exeter, New Hampshire, on the~ 
9th day of October, 1782. He died in Detroit June 17, 
1 866. He was of Puritan descent, and the names of his 
ancestors, Cass and Gillmau, are to be found creditably 
mentioned in early colonial history. 

His father, Jonathan Cass, a type of the }'oung patriots 
of 1776, enlisted at the age of nineteen, on the day after 
the battle of Lexington, and shared the vicissitudes of the 
patriot army until its disbandment in 1783, attaining the 
rank of captain by gallantry and faithful service. He was 
subsequently recommended by the legislature of New 
Hampshire for appointment as the first marshal of that 
State under the Constitution, and was commissioned as cap- 



Acceptance of /he S/a/iie of Le7i'/s Cass. 7 

tain in the regular Army upon its organization. He rose to 
the rank of major, and resigned in 1799, when he settled on 
the Muskingum River, a few miles above Zanesville, Ohio. 
There he died in 1830, high in the esteem of the commu- 
nity in which he li\-ed. 

Lewis was the eldest of five children. He was of robust 
constitution and of bright and eager mind. At ten years 
of age he entered E-xeter Academy, then under the charge 
of that accomplished scholar and instructor. Dr. Abbott. 
He was noted for diligence and manly excellence. He re- 
mained there seven years, and during a portion of that time 
had among his associates the afterward distinguished Buck- 
ingham, Saltonstall, and Daniel Webster. 

In 1799 he taught school at Wilmington, Delaware, for a 
few months, ijreliminary to a foot and boat journey to the 
field of his future work. In October, 1800, he reached Ma- 
rietta, the gateway through which Puritan blood and senti- 
ment first poured its tide, destined to overspread and irri- 
gate the great West. He entered the office of Governor 
Meigs and commenced the study of law, which he continued 
in the office of Matthew Baccus until licen.sed to practice in 
the courts of the Territory, in December, 1802. He re- 
moved to Zanesville, Ohio, wdiere he rapidly acquired the 
confidence and clientage of the pioneers, and in 1S06 he 
married Elizabeth, daughter of Dr. Spencer, of Wood 
Comity, Virginia, formerly of Lansingburgh, New York, a 
lady of culture and refinement. 

In December of the same year he took his seat in the Ohio 
legislature, and at once was conceded a leadership unusual 
to so young a man. The treasonable expedition of Aaron 
P)Urr was the center of public interest at that time, and Gen- 



S Acceplaucc of flic SUxliie of Lnvis Cass. 

oral Cass framed the law under which his boats were seized 
and men arrested. He drafted the official communication 
to President Jefferson, stating the views of the legislature 
on that subject. 

The ability displayed and zeal shown influenced the Pres- 
ident to appoint him marshal of Ohio in 1807, which pcsi- 
tion he held until he exchanged it for the colonelcy of the 
Third Regiment of Volunteers, with which he joined Gen- 
eral Hull at the outbreak of hostilities in 1812. 

His services during that war form no mean part of its 
history, and mark him as a true patriot and capable soldier. 
He led the advance into Canada, drew up the proclamation 
addressed by General Hull to the inhabitants, and com- 
manded the detachment that drove in the outposts at Au.x 
Canards, where was shed the first blood of the war. When 
included in the surrender of Detroit and paroled, he was 
.selected by his fellow-officers, who shared his indignation, 
to lay the facts before the President. He hastened to 
Washington and made the first report, vSeptember 12, 1812, 
on the inexplicable circumstances through which a fort, an 
army, and a Territory were surrendered without the firing 
of a gun. 

Immediately upon his exchange he was appointed colonel 
in the regular Army, and soon after was promoted to the 
rank of brigadier-general. He shared in the campaign of 
1813, ending in the defeat of General Proctor at the battle 
of the Thames and the death of Tecumseh, and was left in 
command at Detroit in the fall. He was almost immedi- 
ately appointed civil governor of the Territory of Michigan 
and ex officio superintendent of Indian affairs. 

Mr. President, were the claim for the admission of his 



Acccpla)nf of tlic StatKe of Lczvis Cass. 9 

statue to "the American Pantheon " based solely upon his 
conduct of that office for eighteen years, there surely had 
been none to gainsay the right. 

He assumed jurisdiction over a wilderness containing six 
thousand French and English speaking whites and forty 
thousand savages. No lands had been sold by the United 
.States ; no surveys had Ijeen made ; no titles were po.ssible. 
The interior was without roads and the savages were jealous, 
restless, or openly hostile. 

His grasp of the Indian jirobleni of that day was the com- 
prehensive grasp of a statesman. He cast aside the methods 
and policies previously pursued by the French and F^nglish 
and treated the Indians as mere occupants and not owners 
of the lands. He proposed to purchase their possessory 
rights, limit their ranging, teach them mechanics and agri- 
culture, and provide them with schools and churches. From 
the outset he imjiressed them with the power anil benignity 
of our Government. 

In twenty-two treaties he secured the peaceable cession to 
the Government of the vast territory now occupied in part 
by four great States. He built roads, ordered and superin- 
tended surveys, established and maintained military posts, 
built light-houses, organized counties and townships, estab- 
lished courts, and pro\-ided all needed conveniences and 
machinery for civilized government and the protection of 
life and property. 

In 1820 he planned and personally conducted an explora- 
tion of the Territory, in which he traveled over five thou- 
sand miles, most of the way in birch canoes, treating and 
exchanging courtesies with the leading tribes of Indians. 
He settled finally the question of supremacy as to whom 



10 Acaplaiicr of tlw Slalttc of Lca'is Cass. 

tlieir allegiance was clue — Great Britain or the United 
States — with them at Sault Ste. Marie, overawing the in- 
solent Chippewas by an act of personal heroism worthy of 
ancient song and story. 

He prospected the copper region, estimated and reported 
on the timber and mineral resources of the Lake Superior 
country, navigated the unknown rivers, ascended the Mis- 
sissippi to its source, and ascertained the internal geogra- 
phy of a vast wilderness, the speedy population of which 
was largely due to the reports of this expedition. As an 
indication of his econ(jmic management, it is well to recall 
that in proposing this journey to the Secretary of War he 
stated that no extra appropriation was needed for it, and 
only asked permission to " as.sign a small part, say from 
one thousand to fifteen hundred dollars, of the sum appor- 
tioned ior Indian expenses." It was this expedition which 
gave Henry R. Schoolcraft his opportunity to make a last- 
ing fame in connection with Indian legends and history. 

In July, 1831, General Cass resigned his office as gov- 
ernor of Michigan to accept the War portfolio in the Cabi' 
net of Andrew Jackson. He had been appointed governor 
six times — under Presidents Madison, Monroe, and Adams — 
without a protest from the people or a dissenting vote in 
the Senate. No treaty made by him was ever rejected by 
the Senate or complained of by the Indians, who as late as 
the last council in Detroit, of the Chippewas, Ottawas, and 
Pottawatomies, July 25, 1855, testified their respect for aiul 
confidence in him by abandoning their discussion, flocking 
about him, grasping his hand, and saluting him as an old 
and \'alued friend when he unexpectedly entered the coun- 
cil room. 



Acceptance of I lie Statue of Le7vis Cass. 11 

Hon. James \". Campbell, for over thirty years a justice 
of the supreme court of Michigan, a man of the Ir'ghest re- 
pute as a jurist and citizen and a critical scholar, writing 
in 1876 his Political History of Michigan, sums up his ac- 
count of tk'iicral Cass's service there as follows : 

His administration was eminently popular, and he desired and en- 
deavored to secure to the people as soon as possible all the privileges 
of self-government. If he erred in this respect it was an error in the 
direction of the largest popular authority. His views were broad 
and sagacious, and he was very free from personal bitterness and ma- 
lignity. The inevitable asperities of politics exposed him in later 
years to the attacks matle on all public men, and his course in na- 
tional aftairs has been severely assailed and warmly defended ; but 
no one now has any doubts about his sincere and unqualified patriot- 
ism. He was a brave defender and a, true lover of his country. 

As Secretary of War, General Cass held the confidence 
and friend.ship of President Jack.son, althougli he joined 
Secretary McL,ane in opposing the proposed removal of the 
deposits. The Black Hawk war occurred and was energet- 
ically conducted. The executive measures called out by 
the nullification acts of South Carolina received his ap- 
proval and co-operation. His report on what was known 
as "the Cherokee question" was an able and exhairstive 
state paper, and the plan outlined for the care of the Indians 
at that time has been substantially followed to this day. 

During his Secretaryship he presided at the first temper- 
ance meeting ever held in Washington (February 24, 1833), 
and delivered the opening address upon the organization of 
the American Historical Society (October 12, 1835). Both 
of these addresses were delivered in the hall where his 
statue now stands, and so far as I can learn they were his 
only public appearances there. On April 7, 1S36, General 



12 Acceptance of llic Statue of Lc7i<is Cass. 

Cass presented a report relative to the military and naval 
defenses of the conntry and the supervision of internal im- 
provements by the Corps of Engineers, which was of great 
merit, and its leading features lia\e become incorporated in 
unr piil)lic policy. 

In August of that year, finding that his health was be- 
coming impaired, he exchanged the Secretaryship for the 
position of minister to France. "Almost immediately upon 
his presentation at court he obtained the payment of intei"- 
est on our indemnity claims, thus terminating a vexatious 
dispute which at one time threatened to involve us in a war. 

His most important act as minister and as an i\merican 
was in effecting the defeat of the ratification of the quintu- 
ple treaty by the French Chamber of Deputies. England 
sought by diplomacy to secure the acti\-e consent of Aus- 
tria, Russia, Prussia, and I'rance to the enforcement of her 
long claimed and jaersistently contested right of visit and 
search, under cover of the general abhorrence of the African 
slave trade. The United States was not furnished a copy of 
the proposed treat)- or asked to subscribe to it, although 
ours was the first nation to declare the slave trade unlawful, 
the first to declare it to be piracy and to take extreme meas- 
ures for its suppression. 

General Ca.ss not only filed a masterly and comprehen- 
sive protest with the F'rench Govennnent, but with the con- 
sent of M. Gnizot, minister of foreign affairs, issued an 
address directly to the French people, which has ser\'ed 
as a text-book of the American position until this day. His 
efforts secured the rejection of the treaty. 

The negotiation of the Ashburton treaty by Mr. Webster, 
without insisting upon the renunciation of England's claim 



.larp/aiiic of llic S/a/iic of Lnvis Cass. 13 

to tlie rit,fht of visit and search in set terms, led to the resig- 
nation of General Cass, and a vohuninons correspondence 
with the Secretary of State on the snbject followed. 

If it had not been for the sensitiveness of the pnblic mind of 
America on the subject of slavery, which was prepared to 
welcome any blow at that institution, although that blow 
might involve concessions which would return to plague us, 
this action of General Cass would have given him immedi- 
ate, exceptional, and lasting fame. To' the student of polit- 
ical history the stand he took and the ability with which he 
defended, yea more, that he advanced it, together with the 
dexterity in adapting means to an end, stamp him not only 
as a statesman but a diplomat of the highest order. 

Isolated in opinion, cut off from instructions from home, 
with an administration behind him whose views on the 
subject were unknown to him, surrounded by trained and 
adverse diplomats, to whom politics was the game of a life- 
time, he threw himself wholly and positively into the conflict 
with a directness, an earnestness, and an alertness that must 
command our admiration. The wonder grows, as we ana- 
lyze the situation, that this man, whose associations at the 
plastic time of his life had been on the frontier, who had 
been denied that conventional education which comes of 
mingling in old communities, whose training was neither 
of the court nor the forum, who had been forbidden access 
to well-filled libraries, should not only have circunu'cnted 
the methods of men trained for diplomacy in the most 
refined and critical arena of Europe, but should have suc- 
ceeded in holding a position that our commissioners had 
relinquished at Ghent, and for which blood and treasure had 
been poured out in the war of 1812. He not only did this, 



14 AcccpUxitcc of tltc Statue of Lc'a'is Cass. 

but by his arguments, based on the law of nations and fortified 
by citations from learned jurists, he drew conclusions which 
availed us much in a dark period of onr civil war and which 
now are recognized as a maritime rule of conduct through- 
out Christendom. 

His return to the United vStates was marked by a succes- 
sion of popular ovations which emphasized the public opinion 
of his services. 

In the national co'nvention of 1844 he stood next to Van 
r)Uren in the balloting for the Democratic candidate for the 
Presidency, until a dead-lock under the two-thirds rule ter- 
minated in a compromise on James K. Polk. In 1845, at 
the earliest opportunity, he was elected to represent Mich- 
igan on this floor. 

Here he at once assumed a leading position, being heard 
in Januar\', 1846, in defense of the Monroe doctrine, and in 
March delivering a learned and forcible address on the Ore- 
gon boundary question, which was afterward paraphrased 
as " fifty-four forty or fight " and used as a watch-word in 
the campaign of 1S4S. During this and the succeeding 
Congress the Wilmot proviso was the central cpiestion. 
When first proposed General Ca.ss favored its incorporation, 
but subsequently yielded to the advice of Justice McLean 
and opposed it on the ground of its unconstitutionality, 
although instructed to vote for it by the legislature of 
Michigan. The instruction was, however, rescinded before 
the final vote was reached. 

In the Thirty-first Congress he was second to Mr. Clay on 
the committee whicli formulated the celebrated "compro- 
mise measures" of that day, and was chosen second onlv be- 
cau.se he himself urged the propriety and policy of placing 
the great Whig leader first. 



Acceptance of the Statue of Lewis Cass. 15 

He supported the measures reported by the connnittee 
with the exception of the " fugitive-slave law," for which 
he refused to vote, although in his seat at the time of its 
passage. 

In 1848 he was the nominee of his party for the Presi- ■ 
deucy, receiving ten more tliau the necessary two-thirds of 
the votes on the fourth ballot, but was defeated through 
di\isions on tlie slaver}- question in New York and Penn- 
sylvania. He received the electoral vote of one-half the 
States, including the State of his birth, New Hampshire, 
Ohio, and the entire Northwest. He so bore himself in the 
struggle and after the defeat that in 1852, during forty-nine 
ballots, he led the poll for renomination, and in 1S56 was 
solicited, through publislied correspondence, to again bear 
the standard, but declined to be considered. 

When he accepted the nomination in 1848 he resigned 
his Senatorship, but was re-elected upon the asseml)ling of 
the legislature in 1849 ^^ ser\e out his own unexpired 
term, and was continued in the Senate as long as his party- 
re tained supremacy in jMichigan. 

During his service in the Senate he advocated a home- 
stead law, and favored the peaceable purchase of Cuba, but 
opposed every measure looking to its forcible seizure. 

Abhorring slaver\' and deprecating its extension, he held 
with the men of his school that it was beyond the interfer- 
ence of the General Government, excepting for protection 
in its constitutional status. 

Upon leaving the Senate, in 1857, he was called to the 
Cabinet of President Buchanan as Secretar)- of State. There 
he maintained the doctrines essential to our nationality, 
which had grown with his growth during his extended serv- 



16 Aiceplaucc of the Statue of I.cicis Cass. 

ice as a builder and director of vStates and as his country's 
representative in European councils. 

Durin;,; his care of our foreign relations " the Republic 
'eceived no harm," and in 1S58 he was gratified with the 
consunnnation of his efforts in the abandonment by Great 
Britain of her assumption of the right of visit and search. 

Amid the internal commotions preceding the outbreak of 
civil war he, as with Clay in 1850, advocated compromise 
between the discordant elements, but when the President 
refused to re-enforce and defend Fort Sumter, he resigned 
his seat in the Cabinet and retired to private life after fifty- 
six years of official service. 

On April 17, 1S61, he addresed the first war meeting in 
Detroit. In company and in practical accord with vSenator 
Zachariah Chandler, he appealed to his fellow-c!tizens to 
stand by the Union. His last public service was a letter of 
patriotic advice to Secretary Seward during the threatening 
complications with Great Britain, growing out of the seiz- 
ure of Mason and Slidell. 

Mr. President, I know of no public man who has filled 
so many places in the economy of life — teacher, explorer, 
negotiator of treaties, governor, pioneer, lawyer, legislator, 
marshal, soldier, diplomat. Secretary of War, Senator, and 
Secretary of vState. In all he acquitted himself well, and 
in most surpassing well. His failings were the faults of his 
party ; his virtues were his own. In diplomacy, bold or 
placable as the occasion might demand ; in legislation, con- 
siderate, logical, and never dramatic ; in administration, 
assidiunis and conservative — the purity of his motives can 
not be gainsaid and the integrity of his acts is above re- 
proach. He was a man of fine presence, grave demeanor, 



Acccplaiuc ojtiic Statue of Lewi & Cass. 17 

and cultivated manners. He took a great interest in young 
men, and many now living can attest his active and effect- 
ive assistance. His house in Detroit, Washington, and 
Paris was ahva}-s the seat of a refined and elegant hospi- 
tality. 

General Cass's life spanned the experimental era of our 
history. To some the Constitution was a procrusteau bed 
to which all things were to be made to conform ; to others 
it was an instrument elastic enough to meet every emergency. 
On the one hand it was regarded as a skin which would 
expand with every development of frame or muscle ; on the 
other a coat of mail, within which the organism might 
grow but beyond the .scales of which growth was impossible. 
It was a very difficult thing to reconcile or compass con- 
flicts apparent at the time of its adoption; to foresee those 
which should arise in the future was beyond human pre- 
science. To outside pressure we were strong ; as against 
internal discord we were weak. 

It was the old fable of the twigs — together we could not 
be broken, apart we were easily rent — and the problem was, 
could we hold together? The twigs took root; their pend- 
ant branches drooping to the West, banyan-like, sought 
earth and water, and soon their giant boles sent back life 
and vigor to the composite parent stem. It was the West 
which made us a nation, and to General CA.Ssmorc than any 
other man was the West indebted for that self-dependence, 
that positivene.ss, that development which, while it was in- 
herent in the race, was promoted and stimulated by his 
efforts to impress upon it that the people were the source of 
power and that society with its statutes and forms of law 
should be a growth and not a creation. 
H. Mis. 145 2 



18 .Icccp/aiKC of I lie Staliic of Lewis Cass. 

Tyike most of tlie prominent men of his time, he believed 
that the Union could be preserved only by conciliation. 
He was a strict constructionist of the Constitution. He 
abhorred slavery, but he honestly believed that under the 
Constitution it could not be interfered with, and that the 
power of Cou^^ress was limited in legislating against it iu 
the Territories. 

With Clay, Webster, and others, he tried by tentative 
methods to arrest the storm that was threatening all along 
the horizon. With them he tried to dam the stream that 
bade fair to overwhelm the nation in a commou ruin — and 
who shall say that their efforts were not essential to the final 
glorious consummation? The stream ro.se higher than the 
crown of the dam and then "battlement and plank and pier 
rushed headlong to the sea." It carried destruction in its 
way, but a destruction neccs.sary to re-creation. 

The invisible forces, always the most potent, were the 
factors which solved the problem. The moral law recog- 
nized in the Ordinance of 1787 wrought out the economic 
results of 1865 ; Appomattox Court House was the corollary 
of Marietta ; humanity was stronger than statutes, and 
parchments shri\-eled before the fires which warmed the 
children in a hundred thousand school-houses. Cadmus 
had planted the dragon's teeth, and, behold, armed men 
were brought forth. The knot which all the sages could 
not untie was cut by the sword. 

In that crucial time when parties were tossing in angry 
tumult, like ships in a tempest with no beacon to guide, 
General Cass was true to the flag. His influence, like that 
of Douglas, sustained the wavering, checked the disloyal, 
and inspired the patriot. The homes which he more than 



Acccplance of I he Slaliic of Lczcis Cass. 19 

any other had opened for tlie emigrant, tlie civilization 
which he more than any other had promoted and encour- 
aged, then sent forth hundreds of thousands of men to die, if 
need be, for the Union. 

He saw tlie flag trailed in dishonor ; he lived to see it re- 
stored in glory. He saw the staff stripped of the emblem 
of a united country before hostile cannon ; he lived to see 
it bend beneath the streaming folds, no star blotted out 
and no stripe discolored, when it was again hoisted amid 
the salvos of artillery. He found us bound together by a 
rope of sand ; he lived to see that bond transmuted in the 
fierce heat of battle and on the forge of conflict to hooks of 
triple steel that no man might put asunder. He entered the 
wilderness which Virginia released, and which the Ordi- 
nance of 1787 consecrated eternally to freedom; he lived to 
see that wild.rness transformed into populous States which 
hurled nearly a million of men to fight for national unity. 

His first year in public life found him strenuous to cir- 
cumvent the traitorous designs of an arch conspirator 
against his country. His last official act was to protest 
againt the vacillation which permitted a State to arm 
itself against the Federal authority unchallenged and un- 
checked. Two years after he entered public life the Afro- 
American slave trade was abolished by statute; two years 
before he died domestic slavery was swept away by force of 
arms. His youthful ears heard the rejoicing on the adop- 
tion of the Constitution ; his aged eyes saw that instrument 
relieved of all complicity with a system that the public con- 
science had come to regard as a crime. He could say, "All 
of this I saw and part of which I was." 
, Whatever maj- be said of the sentiments he entertained in 



20 Acccplamc of the Staliic of Lewis Cass. 

matters of political econoiii)' concerning which able and 
li.onest men have difTered, no one will ever assail his integ- 
rity of administration, the comprehensiveness of his out- 
look, and the entire devotion of thought and purpose to the 
aggrandizement of his country. He found her great in pos- 
sibilities ; he left her great in development. 

Along that toilsome journey of eighty-four years he saw 
no encroachment on her rights that he did not strive to 
thwart ; he had no aspiration that was not consistent with 
her greatness. 

More than twenty years have passed since he died. The 
mists engendered bv the heat, passion, and rancor of the 
crucial time of the nation's history have risen, and men are 
judged not only by their acts but by the results of their 
acts. It has l)een said that the highest place in history 
must be assigned to the founders of states. If this be so, 
certainl)- the next gradation must be assigned to him who 
builds the superstructure on foundations already laid. 

To such a place impartial biography must assign IvEWiS 
Cass. The vState whose institutions he did so much to 
mold, and in wdiose soil his ashes repose, after a lapse of 
twent)'-two years, a time sufficient for scrutiny of his acts 
and their consecpiences, has decreed through its representa- 
tives assembled that he is worthy of a place beside the 
great men who stand serene and changeless beneath the 
dome of the Capitol. 

It remains for us, I\Ir. President, to formally accept his 
statue presented to the nation by the State of Michigan. 
She invokes for tlie life and character which it represents 
and recalls the calm judgment of the present and the future. 
She leaves it in that august tribunal where the nation has 



Acceptance of t lie Statue of Lezuis Cass. 21 

gathered in part the counterfeit presentments of her heroic 
sons, with Williams the tolerant, Allen the vehement, Win- 
throp the devout, and the goodly array of worthies on whom 
History has set her seal. 

In that court of last resort, where every American must 
of necessity be his own accuser, defender, and judge, it 
were well that we should pause and, after calm deliljera- 
tion, let our consciences enter up the verdict whether or no 
our aspirations, our aims, and our acts have been and are 
consistent with the glory of the Republic. 



ADDRESS OF Mr. Morrill 

Mr. President, General Cass, when I first came to Wash- 
ington as a member of the House of Representatives, was a 
prominent member of the Senate, and in 1S57 lie was ap- 
pointed Secretary of State by President IJuchanan, where 
he served until December, i860, and here resided for some 
time subsequently. He owned a large house here, befitting 
the generous hospitality of himself and family, where mem- 
bers of Congress, irrespective of party affiliations, were in- 
vited and made welcome. His early, long, and important 
State and national services could not fail to make it pecul- 
iarly appropriate that a life-like representation of his im- 
posing form and figure should be presented to tlie National 
Hall of Statuary, where the magic of many names of former 
days yet lingers, and a hall already reverently dedicated to 
some of our bravest and best, and, as we trust — 

Immortal names 
That were not born to die. 



22 Acceptance of the Statue of Lcicis Cass. 

In 1864, by act of Congress, all of the States were in- 
vited — 

To provide and furnish statues, in marble or bronze, not exceed- 
in" two in number for each State, of deceased persons who liave 
been citi/tens thereof, and ilUistrious for their historic renown or for 
distinguished civic or mihtary services, such as each State may deem 
to be worthy of this national commemoration. 

For this purpose the old Hall of the Hotise of Represent- 
atives was set apart as a National Statuary Hall, and I 
may be pardoned for mentioning, as the measure was intro- 
duced by me, that it was designed with the further object 
of preserving untouched the admirable features of perhaps 
the finest hall of our country, then in imminent danger of 
being appropriated and cut up for the humble use as docu- 
ment-rooms, with a "long-drawn aisle" or narrow passage- 
way between the House and Senate through the center. 

Beyond the great beauty of the hall itself, its attractions 
are destined to be immensely augmented as each State adds 
its chosen representatives to the national muster-roll of em- 
inent men who have decorated our history. Many States 
have already presented statues of those whose renown the 
American people will preserve with pride, and whose merits 
are here daily recognized by troops of visitors, but likely 
hereafter to be even more earnestly studied and appreciated 
whenever the statues appear to be inspired by the genius of 
our best artists. The statue now offered by the prosperous 
State of Michigan, I feel sure, will be received as in every 
respect a creditable addition to a creditable assembly repre- 
senting celebrities of the past who rendered some service to 
the Republic. 

But there will be abundant room for many more, and we 
have mucli reason to cxjicct the grand old hall will ere long 



Acceplniicc of the Slat lie of Lewis Cass. 23 

lie adorned by such notable figures, possibh-, as would be 
that of Benton, from Missouri, or those of Charles Carroll 
and William Wirt, from Maryland ; Lincoln and Douglas, 
from Illinois ; Grimes, from Iowa ; Morton and Hendricks, 
of Indiana ; Webster, from New Hampshire ; Macon, once 
styled "the last of the Romans," from North Carolina; 
Clay, from Kentucky ; Calhoun, from South Carolina ; Will- 
iam H. Crawford and George M. Troup, from Georgia ; 
Austin and Sam Houston, from Texas ; and Madison and 
Patrick Henry, from Virginia, with a long illustrious list 
of others easily to be mentioned, sufficient to show that our 
materials to make the hall nationally attractive are in no 
danger of being exhausted, but in some States nia\- prove 
embarrassing from their abundance. 

This truly representative hall, with its fraternal congress 
of the dead, who yet speak in marble and bronze, will tend 
to increase mutual respect, tend to knit us together as a 
homogeneous people, here united forever in a common 
tribute of high regard to Americans not unknown to fame, 
and designated and crowned by their respecti\-e States as 
worthy of national commemoration. 

When we notice how swiftly some of those with whom 
we have been associated here, and whom we have loved and 
admired, have passed away, and whose eloquence, wit, and 
learning are only brought to the recollection of the public 
on rare occasions, is it not a gratification to feel that there 
have been some of our countrymen in public service who 
have left their 

Footprints on the sands of time, 

and to find there are traditions and personal memories ex- 
tant in each and every State of historic worthies that are to 



24 Accept aucr of iJw Statue of Lewis Cass. 

have honored reiueinbrancc here through all the future ages 
of the Republic? 

Lkwis Cass belonged to the age of Webster, Cla)-, and 
Calhoun, born in the same year with Webster, Calhoun, 
Wan Bnren, and Benton ; and though his forensic fame 
may have been eclipsed when contrasted with that of the 
foremost trio of our country, as was that of nearly all of 
their contemporaries, he was a strong, well-informed man, 
capable of lucid and cogent argument whenever he chose 
to prepare himself for debate, as he thought it only respect- 
ful to the Senate to do, and throughout his long career he 
was a prominent participant in events that will lie honora- 
bly perpetuated in the annals of onr country. 

The biographical details of the life of General Cass have 
been so learnedly and completely* portrayed by the distin- 
guished Senator from Michigan, whose services here we all 
regret are so soon to terminate, that I am reluctant to touch 
even briefly these details again, but feel that I must, because 
the sticcession of these related facts, covering more than 
half a century of his personal history, are more eloquent 
than any comments can be of mine, and because they seem 
to be necessary to give substance and snpport to the slight 
contribution which it is possible for me to offer relative to 
the life and leading traits of character of this favorite sou of 
the State of Michigan. 

General Cass may be reckoned as one of the class often 
held to be somewhat characteristic of our American civili- 
zation, or as born in one State, obtaining a profession in 
another, and finally achieving fame and fortune in still 
another — an exampleof the restless and enterprising pioneers 
the Kast has sent and is still sending to the West. The son 



Acceptance of tJic Slalitc of Levis Cass. 25 

of a captain in the Continental army, born in New Hamp- 
shire, educated at its famons Exeter Academy, becoming a 
young school-master in Delaware, and the next year, at 
seventeen years of age, going across the yVllcghanies on 
foot to Marietta, Ohio, where he studied law, and then 
started in his profession, in 1803, at Zanesville. Here he 
married and began his political career as a member of the 
Ohio legislature in 1806, where he suddenly became famous 
as the author of an act to arrest the men believed to be en- 
gaged in treasonable movements with Aaron Burr. For 
this timely service, very near to the heart of President Jef- 
ferson, he was rewarded by an appointment as marshal of 
Ohio, an ofhce he retained until 1813. 

At the beginning of the second war with England he 
joined the forces of General Hull as a colonel of the Ohio 
volunteers, and was too soon included in the capitulation 
known as Hull's disgraceful surrender. Having been pa- 
roled, he hastened to Washington with an aching heart and 
made the first report of the sad affair, and, like a gallant 
and indignant young soldier, said in his communication to 
the Secretary of War: "Our duty and our interest was to 
fight." As the forces of the enemy were greatly inferior 
to ours under General Hull, this appears to ha\e been the 
unvarnished truth. After being exchanged he was ap- 
pointed to the Twenty-seventh Regiment of Infantry and 
was soon promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. He 
was in the battle of the Thames, and at the close of hostil- 
ities what his prowess and military efficiency had been was 
clearly indicated by his being placed in command of the 
Territory of Michigan, and finally he was made governor 
of that Territory for many years, showing throughout the 
long service luiimpeachable administrative ability. 



'2tj Acceptance of llie Staliie of Ldvis Cass. 

In 1 83 1 he was made Secretary of War by President Jack- 
son, and largely symi^athized in 1832 with the President in 
his resolnte purpose to crush out nullification. 

In 1836 he was appointed minister to France, where his 
most important act was a vigorous argumentative protest 
against the quintup'e treaty by which Great Britain sought 
by a joint proposal with other EuroiDean powers for the sup- 
pression of the slave trade to maintain the right of search on 
the high seas, but where only a small portion of the high 
contracting parties could give or were expected to give prac- 
tical service or attention. It is enough to say that our 
minister's earnest protest dissuaded the French Goveru- 
nient from signing the treaty and therefore defeated it. 
Soon after our own Governmeut made a treaty with Great 
Britain for a mutual effort to suppress the slave trade, which, 
while not authorizing a search of American by British ves- 
sels, did not explicitly- forbid it, as General Cass thought 
it should have done, and therefore, feeling himself indi- 
rectly discredited, he asked to be recalled, which request 
was granted. His controversy on this subject with Lord 
Brougham, and also with the Secretary of State, Daniel 
Webster, attracted at the time considerable attention and 
occupied much space in the public prints. 

The omission of any declaration against the right of 
search was perhaps less conspicuous in 1842 than in our 
treaty of peace in 1815, when the exercise of that right was 
understood to have been the principal cause of the war of 
1812, but Great Britain then found out and has known ever 
since that any practical re -assertion of the right would be re- 
garded by us as a sufficient cause for war. Most certainly 
GiiK-ral C.VSS woulil not ha\'e concluded the treaty of 1S15 



Acceptance of tlic Slaluc of Lewis Cass. 27 

without an open and explicit provision against the right of 
search, but this probably would have been a humiliation to 
which Great Britain would not have submitted. 

After his return from France he was a candidate, in 1844, 
for the Presidency. Always acknowledging his allegiance 
to the principles of the Democratic party, he cordially ac- 
cepted the measures for which the party then contended, and 
announced that he was against a national bank and in favor 
of the annexation of Texas. He was against the Wilmot 
proviso, and upon the question of whether new States 
should be admitted in the Uniou with or without slavery he 
held that it should be left to be determined by the people of 
the Territories, and this his opponents described as " squat- 
ter sovereignty." He also, in relation to the tariff, de- 
clared — 

That in the imi)Osition of duties necessary with the proceeds of 
the public lands to provide this revenue incidental [jiotection should 
be afforded to such branches of American industry as may reciuire 
it. Tliis appears to me — 

He said — 

not only constitutional, but called for by the great interests of the 
country. 

In the Democratic convention, however, Martin Van 
Buren had the lead, and onh- lacked twenty votes of a two- 
thirds majority, but the friends of Cieneral Cass declined to 
supply the few votes so greath- needed, and Mr. Polk, of 
Tennessee, finally received the nomination. 

General C.\s.s, in 1845, was elected to the Senate, and at 
once joined in the earnest a.s.sertion of our right to all of 
Oregon up to the Russian boundary. He woidd, as he de- 
clared, " not sin-render one inch of it t(j hhigland," and it 



28 Acceptance of the Statue of Lewis Cass. 

may be doubted whether any of lis would to-day be satisfied 
with less than "all of Oregon" were the question now an 
open one. At that time it might, it is true, have led to a 
third war with Great Britain. On there,solution of Senator 
Allen, of Ohio, against the interposition of the powers of 
Europe in the political affairs of America, he was for vigor- 
ous action, for an American policy, and declared : 

We shall lose nothing at home or abroad, now or hereafter, by 
establishing and maintaining an American policy — a policy decisive 
in its spirit, moderate in its tone, and just in its objects— proclaimed 
and supported firmly but temperately. 

At the Baltimore Democratic convention in May, 1848, 
General Cass was once more a candidate for the Presidency, 
and after several ballots obtained the nomination by the re- 
quired majority of two-thirds, his chief contestants being 
James Buchanan and Le\-i Woodbury. General Cass at 
once resigned his seat in the vSenate and retired to his home 
in Michigan, quietly awaiting the result. In his letter of 
acceptance, as his predecessor, Mr. Polk had done, he an- 
nounced his purpose, if elected, not to be a candidate for 
re-election. 

Later, the so-called "Barn-burner" friends of Mr. Van 
Buren, feeling that he had been neglected by his party, and 
not opportunely helped by General Cass in 1844, united on 
a free-soil ticket, nominating Mr. Van Buren for President 
a:ul Charles Francis Adams for \'ice-President. Getieral 
Cass having been defeated and General Taylor elected, was 
re-elected to the Senate, where he took part in the impor- 
tant debates of that important epoch, generally supporting 
the compromise measures of Mr. Cla)' and oi3posing Ijoth 
vSotithern rights dogmas and the Wilmot provi.so; but 



Acccplancc of the Statue of Lcicis Cass. '29 

though present, he declined to vote on the question of the 
fugiti\'e-slaYC kiw. 

In 1852 he was for tlic tliird time a prominent but un- 
successful candidate for the nomination to tlie Presidency. 
His claims were widely conceded, but his part)' decided that 
a candidate who had never lost a race would be more avail- 
able, and nominated and elected Franklin Pierce, of New 
Hampshire. 

In 1857 he accepted the position of Secretary of vState un- 
der President Buchanan. The great crisis in our national 
affairs was rapidly approaching, and in i860 President Bu- 
chanan, in his message to Congress, denied the existence of 
the power in the Constitution by which the General Gov- 
ernment can coerce a State. This was not openly disap- 
proved by General Cass in the Cabinet meeting when the 
message was first read. Eight days afterward, however, 
he re-asserted the Jacksonian principles of 1832-33, that 
"the Union must be preserved," and when the President 
refused to re-enforce Major Anderson and reprovisiou Fort 
Sumter he resigned his place in the Cabinet. 

This last act in his public career of fifty-six years shows 

that he was, like 

Abdiel, faithful found 
Among the faithless, 
au ardent lover of the Union, and did not lack the cour- 
age of his convictions. The act greatly endeared him to all 
supporters of the Government, many of whom thronged to 
his house to listen to the sage and temperate counsel of a 
firm believer in the ultimate triumph of the Union with not 
a State blotted out. 

He was, as has been stated, for six or seven years marshal 
of Ohio, for several years in active military service, gov- 



30 Acceptance of llic Slatiie of I.ncis Cass. 

enmr of Michigan Territor)- for eighteen }'ear.s, five years 
Sccretar\' of War, minister to France for six years, eleven 
years in the United vStates vSenate, and three and one-half 
years Secretary of vState — a most unexampled tenure and 
diversity of official ser\'iccs, all requiring comprehensive 
knowledge and abilit)-, both in ci\'il and military affairs, 
whether as an executive officer, diplomat, or statesman, and 
the general voice of his countrymen has been that in none 
of these high positions was he found deficient, but that he 
discharged every duty with absolute fidelity, with stainless 
purity in private life, and with honor to himself, his State, 
and the country for which he had early shown himself ready 
to stake his life. 

Let tis welcome the statue of Lewis Cass as a felicitous 
contribution to our American Pantheon, where are clustered 
precious memories that will be for all future generations an 
inspiration to noble deeds and unselfish devotion to the in- 
stitutions of a free, enlightened, and independent people. 



Address of Mr, Chandler, 

Mr. President, the jiresent occasion naturally suggests an 
inquiry into the plan and purpose of Congress in establish- 
ing the National Statuary Hall. The movement originated 
in the act of July 2, 1864, which authorized the President — 

to invite each and all tlie States to {jrovidc and furnish statues, in 
marble or bronze, not exceeding two in number for each State, of 
deceased persons wlio have been citizens thereof, and illustrious for 
their historic renown or for distinguished civic or military services, 
such as each State may deem to be worthy of this national com- 
memoration ; and when so furnislied the same shall be placed in the 



Acceptance of the Slalne of Lcicis Cuss. .31 

old hall of the House of Representatives, in the Capitol of the 
United States, which is hereby set apart, or so much thereof as may 
be necessary, as a national statuary hall, fur the purposes herein 
indicated. 

Rhode Island was the finst State to respond to this invi- 
tation, and in Jannary, 1870, the statue of Nathaniel Greene 
was received by Congress. This was followed i:i January, 
1872, by the statue of Roger Williams. 

Connecticut, early in 1872. presented statues of Jonathan 
Trumbull and Roger Sherman. 

New York, in 1873 and 1874, placed in the hall statues of 
George Clinton and Robert R. Livingston. 

Vermont, in 1876, erected the statue of Ethan Allen, and 
in 1 88 1 that of Jacob Col lamer. 

Massachusetts presented, in 1876, statues of John Win- 
tlirop and vSamuel Adams. 

Pennsylvania, in 18S3, presented the statue of Robert 
Fulton, and in 1884, that of Peter Muhlenberg. 

I\Iaine, in 1878, placed in the hall the statue of William 
King. 

Ohio, in 1886, erected the statue of James A. Garfield, 
and in 1888 the statue of William Allen. 

New Jersey, in August, 1888, presented the statues of 
Philip Kearny and Richard Stockton. 

Michig-an to-dav tenders to the nation the statue of LEWIS 
Cass. 

A memorandum concerning the National Statuary Hall, 
further mentioning the statues received prior to and includ- 
ing February 18, 1889, I will insert at the end of my re- 
marks. ^ 

New Hampshire has as yet taken no action in response to 
the national invitation. By univer.sal consent in our State 



32 Acccplaiicr of llic Slaliic of I.c:i<is Cass. 

the first place among New Hampshire's earlier citizens, 
illustrious for their historic renown or from distingnishcd 
civic or military services, will be assigned to John Stark, 
the gallant Indian ranger and fighter, the brave soldier of 
the Revolution, who fought at Bunker Hill, led the van at 
Trenton, was conspicuous at Princeton, and was the hero 
of the battle of Bennington, which was fought August i6, 
1777, mainly by New Hampshire troops, who achieved the 
victory which cut off the retreat of Burgoyne and his army 
and made possible their capture at Saratoga. He was born 
in Londonderry August 28, 1728, became the last surviving 
general, except one, of the Revolution, and died at Man- 
chester, May 8, 1S22, at the great age of ninety-four, the 
most famous soldier of the Granite State. 

The second selection by New Hampshire will be made 
from among several of her distinguished sons, all worthy and 
eminent, but pre-eminence among whom it will he difficult 
to determine. 

New Hampshire is, however, as well as Michigan, honored 
by the presence in the national gallery of the statue this day 
presented. Lewis Cass was born at Exeter, in New Hamp- 
shire, October 9, 1782. He soon emigrated to Ohio, and 
thence to Michigan, but he was followed throughout his 
long career by feelings of pride justly entertained by the 
j^eople of his native State. As a lawyer, member of the 
legislature of Ohio, marshal of that State, volunteer sol- 
dier, colonel, and general in the war of 1812, governor of 
Michigan, Secretary of War, minister to France, United 
States Senator, Secretary of State, he proved himself at all 
times worthy of the respect and admiration not only of his 
native and of his adopted State but also of the people of the 



Acceptance of llie Staliie of Lewis Cass. 33 

whole country. As a representative of New Hampshire in 
this Chamber, I desire to thank the people of Michigan for 
the appropriate memorial which they this day place in the 
national Capitol to one of the most distinguished sons of 
New Hampshire, and one of the most eminent citizens of 
Michigan and of the Union, and which Congress now ac- 
cepts in behalf of a grateful people. 

It does not fall within my province on this occasion, after 
the full narratives and eloquent eulogies of the Senator from 
Michigan and the Senator from Vermont, who have pre- 
ceded me, to recite at any length the words or the deeds of 
General Cass. My brief contribution will be confined to an 
attempt to fix attention upon a few of the special circum- 
stances of his life which seem to me to have materially aided 
in forming his strong and remarkable character, and to a 
consideration of his relations to the most important ques- 
tions of his public life, the controversy over slavery. 

In the first place, the character of General Cass must 
have been largely influenced by his familiarity with the 
patriotic services of his father and uncle in the war of the 
Revolution. It appears that his father, Jonathan Cass, with 
his brother Daniel, enlisted in the Revolutionary army at the 
outbreak of hostilities, and fought side by side at Bunker 
Hill ; and his father was in the conflicts of Monmouth, 
Trenton, Princeton, Germantown, and Saratoga. About 
the close of the war Lewis Cass was born, and he soon be- 
gan to realize how momentous had been the recent Revolu- 
tionary struggle, and with what devotion and patriotic ardor 
his father and his uncle had .sacrificed the comforts of home 
and periled their lives in order to secure the independence 
of the colonies. Such ancestry and such surroundings in 
H. Mis. 145 3 



34 Acceptance of tlic Statue of Lewis Cass. 

his early and susceptible youth inevitably made a deep im- 
pression upon the mind and heart of the boy, and doubt- 
less largely contributed to the development in him of that 
energy, patriotism, and devotion to the Union of the States, 
which under all circumstances of hope and joy, or of doubt 
and gloom, were an inseparable part of his character and life. 

Highly beneficial to the subject of these remarks must 
also have been his school education and his own experience 
as a school-teacher. Exeter Academy was founded by John 
Phillips in i/Si, and soon became a school of note; and 
young Cass, born in Exeter, was as fortunate in receiving 
the help of that academy as have been in later years other 
distinguished men in e'njoying the advantages of a school 
which has become so justly celebrated. After leaving the 
academy he became a school-teacher, and was thus engaged 
at Wilmington, Delaware, when his father took his family 
thence to Ohio. Until recent years nearly every son of New 
England who has become prominent in j^rofessional or pub- 
lic life has been able to recur to the fact that in his youth, 
when obtaining his education, he taught a village school. 
Such experiences in the capacity of teacher have been of 
quite as high a value to the teacher as to those who have 
been taught ; and it may safely be affirmed that to this early 
and fortunate connection with Exeter Academy and to his 
practice as a teacher of others General Cass mainly owed 
that intellectual discipline and literary culture and ability 
which he displayed when long years after, having in the 
mean time been a soldier and a frontier pioneer, he became 
an orator npon the floor of the United States Senate. 

To the military experiences of General Ca.ss must also 
have been due much of the confidence and firmness which 



Acceptance of tJic Statue of Lcicis Cass. 35 

he afterwards displayed. Enlisting in the war of 1812 he 
soon became a colonel and was captured at the fall of De- 
troit under General Hull ; returning, indignant, to Ohio, he 
received a commission as brigadier-general, joined the army 
under General Harrison, and participated in the victories of 
this distinguished commander, by whom he was commended 
for his ability and bravery. The whole military career of 
General C.\.ss was in the highest degree honorable ; and in 
searching for the causes of his distinguished success in after 
years great importance must be attached to the effect of his 
military experience in forming and strengthening the char- 
acter which guided and energized the work of his life as a 
public man. 

Hardly less important than his military experience in the 
formation of his character must be placed his long service 
as Territorial governor of Michigan. Beginning in 1813 
and not ending until 1S31, these eighteen years of varied la- 
bors and achievements, involving the settlement of trouble- 
some Indian questions and all the difficulties incident at 
that day to the government of a Western Territory slowly 
growing toward statehood, must have been fruitful in events 
and experiences which tended to shape and develop those 
traits which were soon to find scope for their influence on 
the broadest national field. 

Coming now to consider the career of General Ca.ss as a 
statesman and a publicist, it would be interesting, if time 
were afforded, to review the principal incidents of his event- 
ful life during the thirty years from 1831 to 1861. There 
were many phases to his work as Secretary of War. He 
was compelled to continue to deal with Indian questions, 
for which he was so well fitted, particularly with the diffi- 



.'56 Accrplniue oj the Statue of Lewis Cass. 

culties witli the Cherokees. As minister to France he 
showed himself an able diplomatist, and his persistency in 
resisting the right of search, notwithstanding the quintnple 
treaty was satisfactory to Mr. Webster and the national ad- 
ministration, nndonbtedly caused the defeat of that treaty 
through the non-concurrence of France, resulting from the 
vigorous protest of Mr. Cass. He was a many-sided man, 
and during his long public career, which can not be said to 
have ended until five years before his death, which occurred 
on the 17th of June, 1866, he dealt with many public ques- 
tions, always with ability, zeal, and patriotic devotion to 
his country's interests. But his relations to the ])ublic con- 
troversies over slavery were the most important of liis life, 
and to considering those alone will the remainder of my re- 
marks be directed. It is impossible to comprehend his pub- 
lic life without such consideration ; it is needful while so 
engaged to speak with candor and fairness and with becom- 
ing reserve. 

Concisely stated. General C.'^SS'S political action with ref- 
erence to the slavery question, which was the overpowering 
national issue from his entry into the Senate, March 4, 1845, 
until he left the Cabinet of President Buchanan, December 
14, i860, was this : He advocated the Mexican war and he 
opposed the Wilmot proviso, notably in his famous Nichol- 
son letter of December 24, 1847. 1^1 1^4^ he was a candi- 
date for President on a platform and with a letter of accept- 
ance so much favoring slavery that Mr. Van Buren became 
a third-party candidate on an anti-slavery platform and 
caused the defeat of General Cass and the election of Gen- 
eral Taylor. Later, in the Senate, he continued his opposi- 
tion to the Wilmot proviso and was a leading advocate of 



Accept aiicc of tJic Slatuc of Lewis Cass. 37 

the compromise measures of 1850, and of the repeal of the 
Missouri compromise, in 1853. Entering the Cabinet of 
President Buchanan as Secretary- of State, he supported the 
Kansas-Nebraska policy-, and favored during the winter of 
i86o-'6i the Crittenden resohitions, designed to make the 
abolition of slavery in the States by national action impos- 
sible without the consent of all the States. 

From this recital it appears that General Cass was one of 
those national Democrats who believed in maintaining in 
the broadest and fullest extent those compromises favoring 
slavery which entered into the framing of the national Con- 
stitution, and that he was opposed to all those views hostile 
to slavery which finally found exjiression in the organiza- 
tion in iS56ofthe Republican party. The conflict between 
these two sets of opinions has now so far passed into history 
that it ought to be possible to discuss the question without 
partisanship and with some hope of reaching a just judgment. 
In looking back to 1852 and the previous years it must be 
admitted that anti-slavery condemnation of Mr. Cass and 
those Democrats who thought and acted with him must also 
be extended to all the leading members of the Whig party. 

Both parties in 1852 indorsed the compromises of 1850 
and nominated their respective candidates — General Pierce, 
the Democrat, and General Scott, the Whig — upon the plat- 
form of adherence to those compromise measures and of dis- 
approbation of anti-slavery agitation. If both parties were 
wrong at that time it is necessary to maintain that out of 
the 3, 144,201 voters in the Presidential election of 1852 who 
voted, 1,601,474 for Pierce, 1,386,578 for Scott, and 156,149 
for Hale, only the latter number were correct in their posi- 
tion on the slavery question ; and even if, in view of later 



38 Accept a lice of tlic Slatiic of Le-vis Cass. 

history, this assertion may be confidently made, yet it still 
remains impossible to charge npon the great mass of voters 
of this country unworthy motives or a lack of patriotism in 
assuming their positions upon this troublesome question. 

But how, it will naturally be asked, is it possible for those 
Americans who earnestly affirm that the compromise meas- 
ures of 1850 were a mistake; that the repeal of the Missouri 
compromise was a grievous wrong, and that the many con- 
cessions to slavery were fatal mistakes, also to admit that 
the motives of the advocates of such wrongful measures were 
as honest as their opponents and were patriotic statesmen 
whom the country justly honored while living, and to whose 
memc/ies, now they are gathered to their fathers, the Ameri- 
can people should pay such tributes of respect and affection 
as those which arc now being offered to the memory of the 
favorite statesman of Michigan? Simply in this way, as I 
humbly conceive, by ascribing to General Cass and his 
political associates the lofty motive of a determination that 
nothing whatever should be allowed to endanger or destroy 
the Union of the States. To do them full justice we must 
go back to the early years of the century. At the pres- 
ent time, after one hundred years iinder the Constitution 
and the Union, whose various parts have become firmly 
cemented together by the sad but helpful experiences of the 
great civil war, the Union seems to be and really is beyond 
danger of destruction for a long period, perhaps for centu- 
ries to come; but this confidence was by no means felt in 
the days of those men whose lives we are now contem- 
plating. 

The Union had hardly begun when the .slavery qiustici;i 



Acccplaiicc of the St a I lie of Lcit'is Cass. .'>9 

threatened trouble, and there came many fears, naturally 
arising even if not well founded, that to tolerate controversy 
over slavery would bring about a dissolution of the Union. 
It seemed easy then for the anti-slaverx- men to say that 
those fears were groundless, but the recent events from 
1861 to 1865 have proved that they were based upon real 
dangers. At all events General Cass and his associates so 
believed and .so acted. The Union was much to them. 
For independence some of them had fought. They were 
near to the days of the Revolution. They and theirs had 
made sacrifices for the Union, and it embodied for them 
their whole hope for a prosperous future for their posterity. 
Under these circumstances they maintained that it was only 
by what they considered a faithful observance of the Con- 
stitution aiul by discouraging agitation on the subject of 
slavery that the inestimable blessings of the Union of these 
States could be made perpetual. 

I am not prepared myself to say tiiat in taking this view 
of their political duties these men were absolutely unself- 
ish or wholly sincere, or in every way patriotic, but such 
has been the opinion of some anti-slavery writers and speak- 
ers when they have endeavored to dispassionately review 
the incidents of the great anti-slavery conflict before its cul- 
mination in civil war. 

Mr. Webster, who had always leaned strongh- toward the 
anti-slavery side, at last, in his .speech on the 7th of March, 
1850, approved the compromise measures of that year, and 
thus brought bitter anti-slavery denunciations upon his 
head. But Mr. Blaine, in his "Twenty Years of Congress," 
is inclined to attribute Mr. Webster's action at this crisis 



40 Acceptance of llie Sial/ie of Lenv's Orss. 

to sincere sentiments of patriotism. He says of Mr. Web- 
ster in this connection : 

lie belonged with those who could remember the first Presitlctit, 
wlio iiersonaliy knew much of the liardships and sorrows of the Rev- 
olutionary period, who were born to poverty and reared in privation. 
To these the formation of the Federal Government had come as a 
gift from Heaven, and they had neard from the lips of the living 
Washington, in his farewell words, that " the Union is the edifice of 
our real independence, the support of our tranquillity at home, our 
peace abroad, our prosperity, our safety, and of the very liberty 
which we so highly prize, that for this Union we should cherish a 
cordial, habitual, immovable attachment, and should discountenance 
wdiatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be 
abandoned." Mr. \Vebster had in his own life-time seen the thirteen 
colonies grow to thirty powerful States. He had seen three millions 
of people, enfeeliled and impoverished by a long struggle, increased 
eightfold in number, surrounded by all the comforts, charms, and se- 
curities of life. All this spoke to him of the Union and of its price- 
less blessings. He now heard its advantages discussed, its perpetu- 
ity doubted, its existence threatened. 

A convention of slaveholding States had been called to meet at 
Nashville for the purpose of considering the possible separation of the 
sections. Mr. Webster felt that a generation had been born who 
were undervaluing their inheritance, and who might, by temerity, 
destroy it. Under motives inspired by these surroundings, he spoke 
for the preservation of the Union. He believed it to be seriously 
endangered. His apprehensions were ridiculed by many who, ten 
years after Mr. Webster was in his grave, saw for tlie first time how 
real and how terrible were the perils upon which those apprehensions 
were founded. 

The thoughtful reconsideration of his severest critics must allow 
that Mr. Webster saw before him a divided duty, and that he chose 
the part which in his patriotic judgment was demanded by the su- 
preme danger of the hour. 

Whether or not the course of Mr. Webster can be thus 
justified and must be adjudged to be patriotic, opinions will 



Acciptaticc of llic Slatiic of Loto/'s Cass. 41 

differ and every one must decide for himself. If Mr. Web- 
ster was right, equall}- so was General Cass. For the 
Union to establish which his father had fon.^ht ; for the 
Union in the service of which he had himself risked his life 
in battle ; for the Union of those States which, so feeble at 
first, he saw beginning to move forward toward a won- 
derful greatness, of which he, however, in his most hopeful , 
visions had no adequate comprehension — for this Union he 
was willing, and others like him were willing, to j-ield too 
much to slavery and to the South. Ihit it certainh- is our 
duty in this generation, when the black cloud of slavery has 
forever passed away, to endeavor to charitably and favora- 
bly judge those whose sole controlling motive may have 
been devotion to the Union of the States which even then 
so much blood and treasure had been spent to accomplish. 
But however pure and patriotic may have been the mo- 
tives of General Cass in his j^olitical course, it is sadly true 
that his sufferings were intense as the culmination ap- 
proached of those dark events which preceded and opened 
up the war of the rebellion. Personal humiliation also 
tended to embitter his existence. The State of Michigan, 
waich had been justly proud of her favorite and greatest 
.son, and had always sustained him b}- her votes, ceased from 
her devotion, and, on Jannar\- lo, 1857, Zachariah Chandler 
was elected as his successor in the vSenate. The same writer 
from whom I have quoted, in an introduction to a biogra- 
phy of Mr. Chandler, says : 

It is a nbtewortliy fact, not infrequently adverted to, that the 
political opinions of Michigan, bothasTerritory and State, lora period 
of sixty years, were represented and nideed, in no small degree, 
formed by two men of New Hampshire birth. From 1819 to 1854 
General Cass was the accepted political leader of Michigan, and 



42 Aarptaiiic of tltc Slalue of Lcivis Cass. 

only once in all that long iieriml of thirty-five years did her people 
fail ti) follow him. 

Notwithstanding the desertion by his State he continued 
to l>e a representative of the national Democracy, which 
came at once to his support. He passed immediately from 
the Senate into the Cabinet of President Buchanan and 
continued his efforts for the preservation of the Union by 
further yielding to the demands of the advocates of slavery. 
Rut as the evil and terrible days of civil war were approach- 
ing even he began to feel that the policy of conciliation 
and concession might be carried too far. When President 
Buchanan decided not to re-enforce Fort Sumter General 
Ca.ss'S indignation was aroused, and he resigned from the 
Cabinet and was succeeded by Jeremiah S. Black, and about 
the time of the inauguration of President Lincoln, in 
March, 1861, he returned to his home in Detroit full of fore- 
bodings for his country. I have been told by more than one 
person who .saw him at this time of the sadness and gloom 
which had settled down upon him on account of the dis- 
tracted condition of the country he had .served so long, and 
I also find his condition aptl>' described by General Garfield 
in his speech in the House of Representatives in comniem- 
oratiou of the life of Zachariah Chandler. He said : 

111 the stormy spring of 1861, when the foundations of the Republic 
trembled under the tread of assembling armies, I made a pilgrimage 
to tlie home of the venerable Lewis Cass, who had just laid down 
his great office as chief of the State Department, and for an hour I 
was a reverent listener to liis words of wisdom. And in that con- 
versation he gave me the thought which I wish to record. He said: 
" You remember, young man, that the Constitution did not take effect 
until nine States had ratified it. My native State was the ninth. It 
hung a long time in doubtful scale whether nine would agree ; but 
when at last New Hampshire ratified the Constitution it was a day 



Acceptance of the Statue o/LeTuis Cass. 43 

of great rejoicing. My mother held me, a little boy of six years, in 
lier arms at a window and pointed me to a great man on horseback 
and to the bonfnes that were blazing in the streetsof Exeter, and told 
me that the liorseman was General Washington and the people were 
celebrating the adoption of the Constitution. So." said the aged 
statesman, " 1 saw the Constitution born and I fear I may see it die." 

This occurrence was on Wednesday, Xoveniber 4, 17S9, 
while Washington as President was making his eastern tour, 
as he passed from Portsmouth, through Exeter to Haverhill, 
Massachusetts. 

(General Garfield proceeded : 

He then traced briefly the singular story of his life. He said : " I 
crossed the Alleghany Mountams and settled in your State of Ohio 
one year before the beginning of this century. Fifty-four years ago 
now I sat in the general assembly of your State of Ohio. In 1S07 
I received from Thomas Jefferson a commission as United States 
marshal, which I still preserve, and am probably the only man living 
to-day wlio bears a commission from Jefferson's han<I." And so, 
running over the great retrospect of his life and saddened by the 
bloody prospect that 1861 brought to his mind, he said, "1 have 
loved the Union ever since the light of that bonfire and the sight of 
General Washington greeted my eyes. I have given fifty-five years 
of my life and my best efforts to its preservation. I fear 1 am doomed 
to see it perish." 

How solitary and sad indeed was the condition of this 
patriotic old statesman going home to Michigan to die. All 
his labors and sacrifices seemed to him to have l^ecn in vain. 
Although, as the world esteems achievements, he had at- 
tained a high degree of success in life, yet he thought of his 
defeat as a candidate for President ; he realized that he had 
been forced from the Senate, and he now saw simultane- 
ously with the defeat of his party which he loved, the 
country which he had served, going rapidly, as he believed, 
to inevitable dissolution and destruction. It is remarkable 



44 Acrcp/aiicc of the S/a/iic of Lt-an's Cass. 

that with such a depression of spirits, aged upwards of eighty 
years, General Cass continued much longer to survive. 

But Providence had kindly decreed that he should not 
pass away from earth in doubt whether his country was to 
li\-e or die. Before his death in 1866 glad tidings reached 
this son of the Revolution, soldier of the war of 1812, and 
pioneer of the magnificent Commonwealth of Michigan ; to 
this grand statesman and true patriot came the welcome 
and glorious announcement that the country of his affection 
had indeed safely passed through the fier\- furnace of civil war, 
tube in its new and freer life stronger and more enduring than 
he had ever dreamed it could become — for the reason that 
the great source of all his fears during his long life-time of 
patriotic service had in the heat of the conflict disappeared 
forever and forever, and the Union of these States, saved by 
doing justly, at last stood a nation, exalted by righteousness; 
"redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled b}' the irresisti- 
ble genius of universal emancipation." 

The President /;■(? /rw/(?/'c. If there be no objection, the 
consideration of the unfinished business, which should be 
resumed at this hour, will be informally laid aside until de- 
bate upon the pending resolution shall have been concluded. 



Acceptance of (lie Statue of Leivis Cass. 



45 



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46 Acceptance of Ihc Slatuc of Lcivis Cass, 



Address of Mr. Morgan. 

Mr. President, in expressing my cordial approval of the 
resolution and my concurrence with the statements and 
sentiments expressed on this occasion by the Senator from 
Michigan [Mr. Palmer], I also desire to state that, as a 
Senator from Alabama, I am glad of the opportunity of 
uniting with them in doing honor to the memory and fame 
of Lewls Cass. 

Alabama never for a moment forgot to hold Lewis Ca.ss 
in honored and affectionate remembrance as a patriot, a sol- 
dier, a statesman, and a legislator. 

In December, i860, he closed a continuous public service 
of more than a half century, in which every act was hon- 
orable, by his resignation from the Cabinet of President 
Kuchanan as Secretary of State. In that act was expressed 
a total dissent from the attitude held by the people of Ala- 
bama on a subject that had begun to grow up into a sectional 
dispute when Lewis Cass was born, and was ended by the 
sword in the last years of his life. 

The side of that question that had become so serious to 
the South, on account of the value of the property involved 
and its social bearings, had to him some very repulsive 
features. But he saw a people included in its toils who 
had not created the evil, but had found it among them as 
an inheritance. He found that the compact of union con- 
tained guaranties for its protection, and he was the sworn 
friend and supporter of that compact. 

Down to the hour when the sword became the arbiter of 



Aacpta)uc of llic Stalitc of Lczcis Cass. 47 

these controversies he sinothercd his aversion to sla\XTy that 
he might bear true allegiance to the Constitution, and he 
endeavored to interpose that shield for the protection of the 
South. 

We parted, at thecloseof the seventh decade of our Union, 
as men part when one man goes out to death and the other 
to assured life and prosperity; but being friends their part- 
ing is equally sad to both. So Cass and the South parted. 

He had always been faithful to the Constitution and just 
to the South, and in parting with us to assume toward us 
the attitude of a public enemy he did not withdraw any 
declaration he had ever made as to the character of the South- 
ern people or the motives that he recognized as being sin- 
cere which led them to protect their rights, as they under- 
stood them, under the Constitution of the United States. 

In 1855, when the great issue between the sections had 
taken definite shape and a terrible conflict was impending, 
he wrote this to the Detroit Free Press : 

I have never known die time when the Democratic party was called 
u])on by higher considerations to adhere faithfully and zealously to 
their organization and their principles tlian they are at this day. Our 
confederation is jjassing through the most severe trial it has under- 
gone. Unceasing efforts are making to excite hostile and sectional 
feelings, against which we were prophetically warned by the Father 
of his Country, and if these are successful the days of the Constitu- 
tion are numbered. 

The continued assaults u]Kjn the .South, u[)nn its character, its con- 
stitutional rights, and its institutions, and the systematic perseverance 
and bitter spirit with which these are pursued, while they warn the 
Democratic party of the danger, should also incite it to united and 
vigorous action. They warn it, too, that the time has come when 
all other differences which may have divided it should give way to 
the duty of defending the Constitution, and when that great party, 



48 .Icccptaiicc of the Statue of Lewis Cass. 

coeval with the (iovenimcnt, should lie united as one man for the 
accompHshment of the work to whieh it is now called, and before it 
it is too late. 

When the struggle that he apprehended had passed the 
States still lived, and Lewis Cass still lived to see that the 
principles of government he had so long and ably advocated 
were adequate, far beyond his hopes and expectations, to the 
restoration to the Union of these imperishable States. His 
belief was that the sovereign power and life of the States was 
the immortal part of the Union, as thespirit is the immortal 
part of man, and that nothing could destroy the Union while 
these living States should maintain its perpetuity. He saw 
that if the Southern States bad perished nothing would have 
remained but the territory in which, and the people through 
whose powers, new States would have to be constructed if a 
new Union was to be formed. 

But the States survived, and with them the Union; and 
General Ca.ss lived to witness that, tinder this form of resto- 
ration, upon the basis of the indestructibility of the States, 
and through their rights as States, the people were again 
brought within the enjoyment of the rights and liberties 
reserved to them and protected by the Constitution of the 
United States. 

He was rejoiced to find the fruits of his labors so abun- 
dant and excellent. He belonged to the class of men whose 
honorable fame is recorded in the gratitude of succeeding 
generations, " for their works do follow them." 

The public life of General Ca.s.s was devoted to the prac- 
tical affairs of the country connected with the great trust 
committed to him by the people. He applied to these af- 
fairs the princijDles of government that he believed were cor- 



Acceptance of Ihe Staliie of Lcivis Cass. 49 

rect, after mature consideration, and did not stagger under 
any responsibility, however great; neither did he diverge 
from his line of duty to conciliate opposing opinions. He 
had none of that mean spirit which sometimes makes cring- 
ing demagogues of men who are honored with high places. 
Being indebted, as I believe, to the principles of American gov- 
ernment in which he was profoundly instructed, and to the 
Constitution of the United States and its true and just con- 
struction, in accordance with the views of men like Lewis 
Cass for whatever of liberties we now enjoy, I am sure that 
I represent the people of Alabama in doing honor and rev- 
erence to the memory of this great American. 

There is a rivalry in the thoughts of this generation as 
to his most distinguishing characteristic, whether it is best 
described by his title of general, governor, jurist, diploma- 
tist, or legislator. It is conceded by all the people that in 
either of these great offices he exhibited eminent abilities. 

It is not to the discredit of that capacity to direct public 
affairs with wisdom which has loaded a continent with evi- 
dences of the greatness of American statesmanship that it 
has not been acquired in the schools, or that so many of our 
grandest characters have been developed and established, in 
their younger days, through the hardships of personal toil 
and, frequently, of privation. 

In the volunteer army, in the fields and workshops, in 
the teaching of primary schools, and under the necessit\' of 
labor for earning a supjDort and education many of our great- 
est men have spent their boyhood and early manhood. In 
these vocations they learned to know the people and to love 
them, and under this inspiration they consecrated their 
powers, with affection and self-denial, to the true purposes 
of our Government. 

H. Mis. 145 ^4 



60 Acceptance of the Statue of Lewis Cass. 

Lewis Cass was trained under snch influences. They 
gave him faith and strength and enriched him, as he ear- 
nestly and bravely followed the course of duty, with the 
grateful affections of the people, who always felt the prouder 
the higher he ascended in station and power. His name 
and fame are identified with Michigan ina way that strongly 
resembles the historic relation between Thomas Jefferson 
and Virginia. We think of Michigan and Cass, when we 
think of the history of either, as being almost identical. 

It may be said of Cass and Michigan that they grew up 
together. He was made Territorial governor of Michigan 
in 1813 by James Madison and held that office for eighteen 
years. He was ex officio superintendent of Indian affairs in 
the Northwest during the greater part of his service as gov- 
ernor. Through his wise and just administration he nego- 
tiated more than twent)' treaties with the Indians and laid 
the foundations of se\'eral of the great States of the North- 
west, whose territory we thus freed from Indian occupancy. 
Michigan, in 1813, was almost at the western verge of the 
horizon of civilization, then called " the far West. " When 
Cass died Michigan was near the center of population in 
the United States, and now it is thought of as a part of the 
far East. 

We boast continually, and why should we not, of the mi- 
raculous growth of our country in every form of progress- 
ive development and improvement. But we should never 
forget to honor the men who have so provided in laws and 
administration for the exercise of these tremendous forces, 
that every human being and every interest has had the free 
and full opportunity to grow and increase without molesta- 
tion from the powers that conduct governments. A prin- 



Acceptance of I lie Slaliie of Lewis Cass. 51 

ciple is at the bottom and around the shores of this ocean 
of human activities that holds in restraint and tempers its 
ceaseless movements. 

lu the history of the public life of Lewis Cass, it is 
found that he relied upon the restraints of the Constitu- 
tion, upon the legislative and executive powers, and their 
faithful and self-denying maintenance, as the earth with its 
rock-ribbed coasts is relied upon to keep the turbulent seas 
within due bounds. 

His influence was a positive power in government and his 
wisdom was accepted as a guide in every strait in which 
the country was placed. He was among the foremost men 
of his age in the useful employment of his great powers for 
great public advantage. 

The earnest ardor of his patriotism was the result of cir- 
cumstances dififering from those that now surround us. 
Now, we are a rich and powerful people, who have learned 
from each other, in the bloodiest of all wars, that the inhe- 
rent power of our population is equal to any ambitious pur- 
pose we could desire to accomplish, and the fear or dread 
of the power of any other nation is a thought that is not 
entertained. There is now an element of aggressiveness in 
the ardor of our patriotism without which it is open to sus- 
picion. 

Lewis Cass entered upon public life before this Capitol 
was burned b)' the British, and he heard with dismay of the 
flight of our President from Washington. He did not then 
feel safe, nor did anybody feel secure of even the final inde- 
pendence of our country. His ideas of patriotic dut}- in- 
cluded personal sacrifice and privation as a debt to the coun- 
try that was liable to be paid in blood at any day. When 



62 Acceptance of I lie S/atiie of Lcivis Cass. 

he was a lad his eyes were dripping with tears as he mourned 
with all civili/X'd nations over the death of George Wash- 
ington. 

It was in such a period of patriotic sentiment that his 
aspirations were guided and his ambition was chastened. 
This was a good time of preparation for a man who was 
destined to have an influential voice in the young Republic. 
He lived in an atmosphere that was purified and blest with 
the living presence of George Washington. As he grew 
okkr the great intellect of Thomas Jefferson was clearing 
the highway of American constitutional liberty of the im- 
pediments of Federalism, kingcraft, and "the divine right 
to rule," which were so difficult to remove. In this plain 
road he laid his course and held it until he had marched 
with Michigan to the grand ascendency we now hold, yet to 
be greatly increased. 

He considered in his well-balanced and courageous mind 
the truth as it was stated and expounded by this wonder- 
ful statesman. He welcomed the Jeffersonian exigesis of 
our Constitution and adopted with earnest conviction the 
plan and creed of government in which libert\' has its cita- 
dels, and this made him always a thorough and conscien- 
tious Democrat. He never departed from the faith, and was 
seldom embarrassed with serious doubts as to his line of 
duty. When he was called upon to exercise a doubtful 
power, he did not rush forward with a zeal that is born of 
egotism or of the lust of illicit authority and seize upon it. 
He thought it safest for the people that he should not too 
broadly construe in his own favor the limited powers dele- 
gated to him as their representative in the Constitution. 

He was the cherished friend of Andrew Jackson, whose 



Accrptauce of the Staliic of Lr^'is Cass. T)?, 

unfailing jud.L,niient of men discovered in Lkwis Cass the 
highest elements of honor, power, and ability. He invited 
General Ca^s into his Caliinet as Secretar\- of War at a 
time when that place was conspicuous in our histor\- for iUs 
great responsibilities and delicate trusts. In this Depart- 
ment he has had no superior for devotion to his country, for 
courage in the assertion of its rights, or for tact in dealing 
with its most complex and important interests. 

Thus from his boyhood to the full ri]K*ness of his man- 
hood he li\ed in the presence and company of the greatest 
men this country or the world has ever produced as their 
worthy associate. Such associations gave early maturity to 
his thoughts and convictions and added to the strength and 
impressiveness of his character. 

Lewis Cass was a strong and self-sustaining man; a cen- 
tral figure, conspicuous and pronounced in its individuality, 
around which national influences were grouped in powerful 
support of national honor, pride, and j^rogress. Yet he was 
a plain, positive, and unpretentious citizen, who had and 
enjoyed the sincere love and confidence of the people, who 
knew him b)- intuition, trusted him without reserve, and 
silently accredited him as a protector of their rights and 
IW^erties. Reappeared amongst his great co-workers in the 
councils of government in bold prominence, as Michigan 
appears on the map of the States, almost insular, strong in 
resources, and peculiarly endowed with the powers of aggres- 
sion and defense. 

His name is linked with that of a State which is destined 
to a most important influence in the future of the Republic, 
and in history the>- will never be separated. It is a great 
reward of enlightened, faithful, and laborious service to the 



54 Acceptance of tlic Slatiie nf Lcicis Cass. 

country to be thus identified witli the history of an Ameri- 
can vState. The States are imperishable, and their imme- 
diate care of the personal interests and happiness of the peo- 
ple excites in the heart of every true man the deepest sense 
of grateful and proud affection. 

Lewis Cass freely and fondly indulged in this filial regard 
for the State of Michigan. He foresaw its .splendid future 
when he settled at Detroit and made Michigan his future 
home. 

Far retired from the sea-board Michigan is, in the com- 
mercial and military sense, a maritime State. It has a 
coast-line longer than any State in the Union except Cali- 
fornia. Its hill country abounds in iron and copper of the 
best quality. Its forests are a treasure of wealth, and its 
arable lands yield grain and grasses in ample supply. 

This great peninsula points to the Arctic circle across 
the waist of Canada like an outstretched arm. Around its 
coasts are commodious harbors that invite the trade and 
commerce of many States, comprising some of the most 
productive areas of the United States and Canada. Its com- 
mercial and military command of the Great Lakes and their 
shores is absolute when it needs to be made absolute. 

On its eastern face the peninsula of Michigan is on the 
flank of the water-shed of the St. Lawrence River; and 
upon its western face it confronts the inlet from the Pacific 
through the western coasts of the British possessions, and 
holds in easy connnand the basins of Lake Winnipeg and 
Hudson's Bay. 

If the behests of the people of British descent on this 
continent .shall ever require Canada and the United States 
to engage in war, or tosericmsly coutenqjlate that cruel arbi- 



Acceptance of the Statue of Lewis Cass. 55 

ter as the power to decide questions provoked by ambitious 
rivah'ies,\ve would find in Michigan the true point of strategic 
advantage. 

General Cass lived to see the wonderful development of 
Michigan, and to listen to the undivided opinion of Ameri- 
cans as to the future greatness and natural importance of 
this strong Commonwealth. Cass and Michigan grew rap- 
idly and with solid growth. Michigan would have grown 
without the aid of his counsels, it is true, but who can deny 
that the firm statesmanship of Lewis Cass gave to Michi- 
gan and all the other States a high degree of security and 
peace in many dangerous emergencies? In political affairs 
Cass took position on the border and in the center of the 
border line, and looked out, like a true and faithful senti- 
nel would, over the wa)-s Ijy which an eneni)- might ap- 
proach. In his attitude towards his compeers he was insu- 
lated without being separated from them. He was united 
in fervent attachment with his countrymen of all classes, 
while he maintained his individuality with severe dignity. 

In his diplomatic career his resources were strong, useful, 
and abundant, and were employed with the highest advan- 
tage to his country. In that service he was measured 
without disadvantage by comparison with the greatest men 
of his day. Michigan now conies by invitation of Congress 
and presents to the United States the statue of the man 
upon whom she bestows her first and highest lionors in this 
Capitol. 

Let these States here assembled welcome her coming 
with proud congratulations. 

Should she return another such as Lewis Cass to this 
Senate, who would not stand uncovered while he raised his 



50 AcccptauiT of tlic Statue oj Lewis Cass. 

hand and bowed his heart to swear that he would support 
tlie Constitution of the United States? 

Tlie whole country would feel that in the purity of that 
pledge the Constitution would find another powerful sup- 
porter and defender, whose fealty to it would never relax 
under tenii)tation nor yield to any human ])ower. 



Remarks of Mr, Hoar. 

Mr. President, the Senators representing Michigan and 
Alabama and New Hampshire, and our venerable and be- 
loved colleague who has spoken of General Cass from his 
personal recollection, the Senator from Vermont [Mr. Mor- 
rill], have performed adequately all the duty which this 
occasion requires of Senators so far as is necessary to mark 
the public gratitude to the State of Michigan for the gift of 
this statue of her illustrious citizen. But I think one other 
observation ought to be made indicating the special cause 
we have of gratitude to that State for its great wisdom and 
discrimination in the selection of the artist who has contrib- 
uted this interesting portraiture to the art treasures of the 
Capitol. 

I have seen the statue, and without claiming for myself 
any experience or taste which entitles me to pronounce a 
judgment more than all other men, I think I am not mis- 
taken in affirming that this statue will be regarded always as 
one of the very finest, if not the very finest work of its kind, 
which has yet been contriliuted to our gallery under the 
joint resolution passed in 1864. It is a figure, manifestly 



Acccplaiice o/ thr Statue of Lricis Cuss. 57 

accurate in portraiture, and not only that, hut it is a fi_^-ure 
full of strength, spirit, and life. 

The young artist who is the author of this work, althougli 
not yet mature in his powers, has already made himself 
famous by The IMinute Man at Concord, one of the very few 
American statues that are alive; by the beautiful statue of 
John Harvard, made for the University at Cambridge; by 
the ideal figures upon the Boston post-ofiice, and by that 
most wonderful portrait bust which represents and pre- 
serves in the memory of those who knew him the venerable 
features of our illustrious poet and sage, Ralph Waldo Em- 
erson. 

The State of Michigan has been both wise and fortunate 
in the selection of the artist, and that alsoouglit to be men- 
tioned as one of the reasons for the public gratitude to the 
people of that State. 

Mr. Stockbridge. Mr. President, I second the motioi 
lor the adoption of the pending resolutions. 

The President pro touporc. The question is on agree- 
ing to the resolutions offered by the Senator from Michigan 
[Mr. Palmer]. 

The resolutions were agreed to unanimousl}-. 



PROCEEDINGS TN THE HOUSE OF REPRE- 
SENTATIVES. 

February 20, 1889. 

The Speaker pro toiiporc laid before tlie House the fol- 
lowing resolutions : 

Rcsolvnl by tJw Senate (the House of Representatives concurrin^^). 
That the thanks of Congress be tendered to the governor, and through 
him to the people of the State of Michigan, for the statue of Lewis 
Cass, whose name is so conspicuously connected with the develop- 
ment of the Northwest Territory and with eminent services to his 
State and country both at home and aljroad. 

Resolved, That the statue is accepted in the name of the nation 
and assigned a place in the old Hall of Representatives, and that a 
copy of these resolutions, signed by the President of the Senate and 
the Speaker of the House of Representatives, be transmitted to the 
governor of the State of Michigan. 

Mr. CniPMAN. Mr. vSiDcaker, I ask by tnianinious consent 
that to-morrow at half past three o'clock in the afternoon 
the.se resolutions be considered by the House. 

The Speaker pro tc»iporc. Is there objection? 

Mr. O'Neaij,, of Indiana, and Mr. LvNCii objected. 

Mr. Chipman. Mr. Speaker, no one rises to object. 

The Speaker pro tciuporc. The geullenian from Penn- 
sylvania [Mr. Lynch] and the gentleman from Indiana [Mr. 
O'Neall] have objected. 

Mr. Chipman. Well, then, I will put the hour at four 

o'clock in the afternoon. 
58 



Acicplaiicc of llti- Stahu of Lc-icis Cass. 59 

Mr. Randall. These resolutions can be considered bv 
the House, and after they have been disposed of the House 
can then proceed to other business. 

Mr. Chipman. I will say four o'clock to-morrow after- 
noon. 

Mr. Lynch. I object. 

The Speaker pro tcniporc. If there be no objection, the 
resolutions will be referred to the Committee on the Library. 

There was no objection, and it was so ordered. 

Mr. Allen, of Michigan. Mr. Speaker, in view of the 
refusal to take up and consider the resolutions which have 
come from the Senate accepting the statue of LEWIS Ca.s.s, 
will the Speaker please tell us what we are to do with the 
statue if it is not accepted ? 

The Speaker pro tempore. That is hardh' a parliament- 
ary inquiry. 

A Member. Take an evening session to the resolutions. 

February 21, 1SS9. 

Mr. CiiiPMAN. The gentleman from Georgia []\Ir. 
Blount] permits me to submit a proposition fi.xing an even- 
ing session for the action of the House on the concurrent 
resolution accepting the statue of General C.\s.s. 

The Speaker. The Clerk will read the resolution. 

The Clerk read as follows: 

Rcsolveii, That tlie Committee on tlie Library are disiliarged from 
the consideration of tlie concurrent resolution to aiccpt the statue ol 
General Lewis Cass, presented to the L'nited States by the State of 
Michigan ; and that a recess be taken at five o'clock this afternoon 
until half-past seven o'clock this evening, at which time the House 
shall be in session to consider said resolution and no other business; 
and that the said session shall adjourn not later than ten o'clock. 



60 Acceptance of t lie Statue of Leivis Cass. 

The SpKAKRR. Is there objection to agreeing to this res- 
olution? 

Mr. Crisp. I will not object if any other night than 
to-night l)e named, because it is the intention to have a 
caucus to-night. 

Mr. CniPMAN. Then I suggest Saturday night. 

Mr. Mills. What is this proposition ? 

The Speaker. The gentleman from Michigan desires 
unanimous consent for the adoption of a resolution fixing a 
session for Saturday night for the acceptance of the statue 
of General IvEWiS Cass. The Chair will state that on Sat- 
urday afternoon, by order of the House, the resolutions in 
relation to the death of the late Representative Burnes 
will be taken up by the House, and that in such cases it is 
usual to adjourn at the conclusion of the eulogies, instead 
of taking a recess. 

Mr. McMiLLiN. Then I suggest Monday night. 

Mr. Randall. Will that involve an adjournment at any 
particular hour on Monday night ? 

The Speaker. The proposition is for a recess at five 
o'clock and an adjournment at ten. 

Mr. Randall. Well, I object to the provision for an ad- 
journment at ten o'clock. 

The Speaker. Objection being made, the resolution is 
not before the House. 

February 28, 1889. 

Mr. CiiiPM.AN. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent 
that the Committee on the Library be discharged from the 
further consideration of the Senate concurrent resolutions 
providing for the acceptance of the statue of Lewis Cass, 



.'Icccplance of lit e Staluc of Lcxvis Cass. (51 

piesented by the State of ]\Iicliigan to the United States, 
and pnt the same upon their passage. 

There was no objection. 

The concurrent resolutions were considered ; they are as 
follows. 

Resolved by the Senate {the House of Representatives e<>ncurriiig), 
That the thanks of Congress be tendered to the governor, and through 
him to the people of the State of Michigan, for the statue of Lewis 
Cass, whose name is so conspicuously connected with the develop- 
ment of the Northwest Territory and with eminent services to his 
State and country both at home and abroad. 

Resolved, That the statue is accepted in the name of the nation 
and assigned a place in the old Hall of the House of Representa- 
tives, and that a copy of these resolutions, signed by the President 
of the Senate and the Sjieaker of the House of Representatives, be 
transmitted to the governor of the State of Michigan. 



Address of Mr. Chipman. 

Mr. Speaker, the State of Michigan presents and asks the 
United States to accept a statue of General Lewis Cass. A 
man ought to have exemplified the civic virtues nobly 
while he was living to deserve this tribute when he is dead. 

It is a solemn act to place a name on the nation's roll of 
honor. That roll is a message to posterity. It ought never 
to exploit the accident of divine right — Fate's most cruel 
jest on men — or be sullied by meretricious greatness. For- 
tunate, indeed, is the country which has children worthy of 
this glory, and fortunate, thrice fortunate, is America in a 
goodly company of sages, patriots, statesmen, whose fame 
illuminates her history and deserves the reverence of her 



()2 Acccplaiicc of the Statue of /,c:cis Cass. 

people. Hi<,^li in the ranks of this company stood General 
Cass. 

He was cx)nspicuous even among them for his robust 
Americanism. He was fortunate in opportunities as a man 
of action and as a man of counsel. His career was varied 
and remarkable. As a soldier in the war of 1812, as gov- 
ernor of the Territory of Michigan and pacificator of the 
Indian tribes, as Secretary of War and minister to France, 
as vSenator in Congress and Secretary of State, in speech 
and in action, his patriotism shone pure and strong in the 
light of his great abilities. He loved his country. He be- 
lieved in her institutions, in the capacity and the right of 
her people to govern themselves. He was not shamefaced 
in this faith. He was not a servile imitator of foreign man- 
ners, but of simple American life, delighting in literature 
and art, and content with the ways of the folk among whom 
his lot was cast. 

The patriotism we honor here to-night was at one time 
the subject of ridicule, and attributed to unworthy motives. 
This was when he made his declaration of "fifty-four forty 
or fight" on the northwestern boundary question. Per- 
haps, sir, we of this generation will see how mean the pas- 
sions of the hour made us to our political opponents and 
be ashamed that we vilify men who are worthy of statues 
erected by a grateful country. But, sir, General C.vss's pa- 
triotism was far-reaching. It was the love of countrs' which 
inspires a statesman with grand thoughts for her prosperity 
and independence. He knew our place among the nations. 
His opposition to the quintuple treaty, unless it was accom- 
panied with a renunciation of the right of search as a prin- 
ciple of international law, and his broad interpretation of 



.Icccplaiicc of llu- Sialiie of [.cwis Cass. (J-M 

tlie Monroe doctrine, prove that he pierced the fntnre with 
his prescience. 

Room, freedom for onr commerce, are the <;reat necessi- 
ties if we would keep abreast or alicad of tiie nations. We 
see now with a clearer vision. The horizon of civilization 
has expanded. There are no longer dark continents, waste 
places, but the earth rounds before us like an open book, 
each page of which is radiant with tire destiny of our com- 
merce. This is the world in which General C.\ss desired 
his country to be pre-eminent. 

Sir, we know that he is worthy of this honor we do to 
his memor)'. Patriotism is the virtue of statesmen. It 
casts a glamour over their lives and throws their shadows 
boldly on the future. 

There is, sir, an aspect of General Cass'.S career which 
brings him very near to the hearts of the men of the West. 
The great vStates of Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, 
Iowa, Minnesota are all indebted to his facility in the man- 
agement of the Indian tribes. To us of Michigan he was 
as a father, a benefactor. He reared the roof-trees of our 
homes and kindled the fires on our hearth-stones. 

So we, the children and grandchildren of the men who 
fought side by side with him against savage man and un- 
tamed nature, do him this reverence. We ask the nation to 
rear his image in the national Pantheon, that our children's 
children may gaze on the " counterfeit presentment " of a 
virtue which adorned her history and blessed mankind. 
My fervent prayer is that that sacred shrine shall never be 
desecrated by honors showered on kings or oppressors of 
God's people, but that forever it shall chronicle the freedom, 
the greatness, the prosperity, and the happiness of our 
country. [Applause.] 



(Si Acceptance oj the Statue of Leivis Lass. 



Address of Mr, Randall 

I unite with the Representatives of the State of Michigan 
with all my Iieart in doing lienor to the memory of LEWIS 
Cass. He was, as much as any one man could be, the 
founder aiul builder-up of that prosperous Commonwealth 
which sits so proudly amid our northern inland seas. 

He foresaw with the instinct of a statesman the coming 
glory of his country, and at the beginning as at the close 
of his career he advocated the principles and supported the 
public policy upon which our liberties and independence as 
a nation depend for preser\'ation. 

If I were to select one characteristic in his public life which 
dominated all his thoughts, words, and actions, it would he 
his intense love of country. No matter how dark and threat- 
enino- was the outlook, onr enemies might be nianv and their 
hatred bitter, yet his heart never quailed; but with pen, 
\oice, and sword he battled for the rights and honor of his 
country, for the general welfare, and for the melioration of 
the human race. . 

When Burr's mysterious conspiracy was hatching in the 
then wilderness of Ohio, Thomas Jefferson detected and ex- 
posed the treason before it got beyond control, and Lkwis 
Cass, then a young lawyer and member of the Ohio legis- 
lature, drafted legislation which had the effect to destroy the 
projected expedition and restore public tranquillity. 

When appointed superintendent of Indian affairs his un- 
surpassed mental and physical energy was tested and strained 
to the utmost. Throughout Michigan Territory, of which 



Acci-plaiiic oj lite Slatiic of Lczc/'s Cass. Go 

he was second Territorial governor, wandering bands of 
Indians were a constant menace to the peace and growth of 
tlie white settlements. " They had in two wars been em- 
ployed by the Ihitisli against the Americans, and they were 
regnlar pensioners on British bonnty." He made seven- 
teen treaties, with the W)-andotte, Seneca, Delaware, Shaw- 
nee, Pottawatomie, Ottawa, and Chippewa tribes of Indians, 
won their respect and confidence by honest dealing and firm 
and resolnte administration, and from a position of hostility 
made them our good and fast friends. 

He explored the whole country, and in his birch canoe 
traversed thousands of miles unvisited before, save by the 
Jesuit fathers or the hunters who pursued the valuable fur- 
bearing animals of that region. He communicated to the 
North x\merican Review at the time some of the ablest 
articles which have ever been written on the Indian lan- 
guages, character, and history. He was amongst the first 
to appreciate them and improve their condition. 

He was annan of sword, i)en, and voice, and in all his 
varied career won renown in each and ever}" position. At 
the breaking out of the war with Great Britain he served 
with distinction, as might have been exjiected of the son of 
]\Iajor Cass, who had fought in the Revolutionary army for 
seven blood)- years to help win our independence. He after- 
ward took part in the campaigns of Harrison, which ended 
in the destruction of the British army in western Canada, 
the killing of Tccumseh, and the flight and disgrace of Proc- 
tor. 

Cooley, in his "Michigan: A History of Governments," 
sums up this part of Ca.ss'.s public life as follows: 

There was some feeling of Territorial [iridt.' that Jackson had looked 
to this distant region for a member of his Cabinet, but the people of 
H. Mis. 145 5 



(id jlcccptancc of the Statue of Lewis Cass. 

the Territory parted with the governor with great reluctance. He 
had not only managed the public affairs with ability and unques- 
tioned integrity, but his e.xamjjle had been excellent and his inHiience 
of the best. Governing frontier settlements, where rough characters 
abounded and roystering habits prevailed, he was always in his own 
(lejiortnient courteous and complacent, always abstemious, always 
self-respecting; and as unexceptionable in his private character and 
in all his domestic and social relations as he was in his public capac- 
ity and deportment. Permanent American settlement may be said 
to have begun with him; and it was a great and lasting boon to 
Michigan when it was given a governor at once so able, so patriotic, 
so attentive to his duties, ami so worthy in his public and jirivate 
life of respect and esteem. 

As Secretary of War i:i Andrew Jackson's Cabinet, he 
was pronoitnced, vigorous, and emphatic in his hostility to 
the doctrine of nullification of the laws, and long afterward, 
in his old age, when Secretary of State in IJnchanan's ad- 
ministration, in i86o-'6i, he spoke with no uncertain voice 
in favor of the maintenance of the Union at all hazards and 
at every cost. He lived to see the civil war brought to a 
successful close in behalf of the Union, and to see the coun- 
try out of her evil da}s start upon a career of prosperit)' and 
greatness which is the marvel of the age and without par- 
allel in ancient times. 

When Great Britain delayed, upon one pretext and an- 
other, to turn over to the United States the fortifications 
within our lines, and harassed our border with threatened 
Indian forays, contrary to the stipulations of the treaty of 
peace, and when upon the high seas Great Britain assumed 
the right to visit and searcli our ships, as minister to France 
he drew up an impassioned appeal to that country, which 
had much to do in exposing the arrogance and injustice of 
the claim. 



.liccplasuc of III,- Slaliic of fAZcis Cass. 67 

\Vliene\-er the way was to be cleared for the future whieli 
he saw so clearly openiug up for his country he was amonj^ 
tlie first to set to work and was among the most able and 
successful leaders. He denied the doctrine of perpetual alle- 
giance, assisted in making our flag respected on every sea, 
stoutly defended the Monroe doctrine in res2:)ect to the 
American continent, and, so far as one man could, pro- 
moted the peace, happiness, and glory of his country. 

In 1850, when the slavery agitation pervaded the whole 
land, and the wisest and most fearless stood aghast at the 
threatened danger to the Government, in that hour of great 
peril Lewis Cass's name was put second by a solemn re- 
solve of the vSenate — second onl\- to that of Henry Cla\-, the 
great pacificator — in behalf of honorable adjustment. Noth- 
ing could better displa)' the confidence then rejDosed in his 
ability and sense of justice. 

While he was resolute and exacting for his country, he 
was in his pri\-ate life retiring, unostentatious, frugal, sym- 
pathetic, and considerate in his relations with those he came 
in contact with. 

Let me close by reiaeating two sentences from General 
Ca.ss'S writings, which give a good insight into his char- 
acter. He said : 

For myself, I have no lielief in that greatness which is too great to 
mingle with the details of life. 

In another place he said : 

He who occiiijies the loneliest cabin upon the very verge of civili- 
zation has just as important a part to play in the fate of our country 
as the denizen of the proudest city in the land. 

These utterances I commend heartily, both in sj^irit and 
letter, as a guide to all in public life. [Applause.] 



68 ^IciCplaiuc oj tlic .Staliie oj Leans Lass. 



Address of Mr. O'Donnell 

Mr. vSpeaker, in tlio year 1864 an invitation was extended 
to the dififerent States of this Union by the national Con- 
gress to i^resent the statues of two of their deceased citizens, 
to be placed in Statuary Hall, in the nation's Capitol. The 
works in sculj^ture were to represent those "illustrious for 
their heroic renown or distinguished by civil or military 
services." Nearly a quarter of a century has elapsed since 
this action of the Congress. The State of j\Iichigan to-day 
makes its contribution in the statue of her illustrious pio- 
neer, soldier, and statesman. General Lewis Cass, who 
served the State and nation for more than half a centur\-, 
always to the advantage of the people and promotion oi the 
glory of the Republic. His fame was not built upon the 
fluctuating wave of popular party favor, but on service for 
his country and achievements for the welfare of the nation. 
Now, the people of the j^eninsular State who cherish his 
memory and the deeds of his life unite in presenting this 
memorial to the worth of the foremost man in their history, 
the man who aided so much in building up their Common- 
wealth and making secure the great experiment of self-gov- 
ernment on this continent. 

Lewis C.\ss was the second governor of Michigan Terri- 
tory. As its executive he governed wisely for seventeen 
years, taking office in 1813 and continuing until 1830. His 
sword had helped to win freedom to the great Northwest. 
He was the fifth citizen chosen to represent the young State 
in the Senate of the nation, and in that high body he served 



Acceptance of llic Slaliic of Lca'is Cass. G9 

for twelve years. He was called to the Caljinet of President 
Jackson, and held the portfolio of War for fonr years, to be 
transferred to the French conrt as envoy extraordinary and 
minister plenipotentiary, which place he graced for six 
years. His wisdom and discretion a\'erted tronble between 
the two conntries and restored friendly relations. 

While at this post he prevented the ratification of the 
qnintnple treaty and thereby jDrohibited the establishment 
of the right of search on the high seas, so strennonsh- as- 
serted by P^ngland. As Secretary of State he served for 
nearly fonr years, resigning a few weeks prior to the close 
of the administration of President Bnchanan. I ha\'e given 
a hasty review of the official life of Lewis Cass. It em- 
braces a period of fift^'-.seven }-ears of service, as legislator, 
soldier, execntive, cal)inet officer, and diplomate. I belie\-e 
bnt one citizen exceeded that length of service — John 
Oniucy Adams. 

Michigan owes much to Lkwis Cass for its prond emi- 
nence in the vStatesof the Union. As its governor his great 
aljilities were devoted to the development of its wonder- 
ful resources. His management of affairs connected with 
the Indians was tempered with wisdom and justice, and his 
treatment of the original occupants of the soil was followed 
by friendly feeling between the races. His administration 
solved the Indian problem by its firmness and equity. His 
life began at the close of the last century. His years from 
early manhood were devoted to the advancement of civiliza- 
tion, the glory of his country, and the progress of the peo- 
ple. His ser\'ice was so conspicuous that in 1S48 he was 
rewarded by the great Democratic party by the nomination 
for the Presidency. 



70 Arn'pfaiici- of tlir Si a lite of Lnris Cass. 

In the election of that year Lewis Cass received 127 elect- 
oral votes to 163 for Zachary Taylor. The popular vote 
aggregated 2,871,908, divided as follows: Cass 1,220,544; 
Taylor, 1,360,101; Van Buren (Free-soil), 291,263, giving a 
plurality of 139,557 for Taylor, leaving him a minority 
President. In the light of the situation of parties political 
to-day, a study of that election is of interest. There were 
thirty States, and each of the leading candidates succeeded 
in fifteen, an equal division. General Cass was successful 
in eight Northern States and seven Southern, while General 
Taylor received a preponderance of votes in eight Southern 
States and seven Northern. In the North Cass had 810,460 
and Taylor 925,472 votes, while in the South the vote stood 
410,084 for Cass and 434,629 for Taylor. In this eight to 
seven contest the result was determined b>- a small majority 
in three States of the South. A change of 1,021 votes in 
each of the three States of Delaware, Georgia, and Louisiana 
would have given the victory to Cicneral Ca.ss, and might 
have changed the history of the country. 

The pivotal States of the North were taken from General 
Ca.ss by the letter to Nicholson, dated December 30, 1847. 
In that letter General Cass look strong grounds against the 
Wilmot proviso. He believed, to use his own words, its 
adoption " would weaken, if not impair, the Union of States, 
and would sow the seeds of future discord, which would 
grow up and ripen into an abundant harvest of calamity." 

It would seem as if he was forecasting by his fears the 
horoscope of the future; to his prophetic eye the mists of 
coming years were lifted. In the .same letter, while endeav- 
oring to protect what he thought the constitutional rights 
of the South by opposition to this measure of the anti- 



Acc(ptaiu\' (1/ /ill- S/ii/iii- of /.CiC'/s Cass. 71 

slavery sentiment, lie failed to solidif\- that section by his 
utterance against the institution of slavery. He said : 

We may well icgret the existence of slavery in Southern States and 
wish lliey had been saved from its introduction. 

In the great States of the North the waves of an ad\'erse 
popular sentiment beat against him, provoked by his es- 
pousal of what he thought the rights of the vSouth, while that 
portion failed him at the last. 

Having hastily sketched the political life and ptiblic 
services of tlie statesman of the Northwest, I desire to speak 
of him as a patriot. He loved his country and her institu- 
tions; his life was panoplied in honest and simple patriot- 
ism. A reference to his services in the Army in the early 
davs of the Republic attests his devotion to the Union. His 
words and votes in the vSenate during the war witli Mexico 
were alwavs ibr the nation's glory and in aid of its soldiers 
and to promote their triumph. 

In the war for the Union he occupied grounds of exalted 
patriotism. He deplored the conflict, and fervently lioped 
the Union would be undisturbed, that the storm would pass. 
He quitted the Cabinet of President Buclianan, being unwill- 
ing to share longer the councils of an administration where 
the Government was not strongly maintained. He was un- 
able to discover the intentions of a Government thatscarcely 
knew its own intentions, and withdrew from its deliberations. 
With the change of administration Cass still hoped for recon- 
ciliation between his countrymen. He abhorred war, but 
believed in protecting the Government. In 1847 he wrote: 

All wars are to be deprecated as well by the statesman as by the 
philantln-opist. They are great evils; but there are greater evils tha'i 
these, and submission to injustice is among them. The nation wlui .. 



72 Acceptance of titc Slalitf of Lca'is Cass. 

should refuse to ilefend its riglits and its honor when assailed would 
soon have neither to defend. 

He held that in times of peril — 

There is one ark of safety for us, and that is an lionest appeal to 
the fundamental |)rinciples of our Union, and a stern determination 
to abide their dictates. 

No one thonght General C.\s.s would hesitate when the 
hour of trial came. As he saw the country he realized that 
the quarrel was in its nature irreconcilable and eternal as 
the warfare between right and wrong. He found the peo- 
ple of the North divided, tlieir views being aptly defined as 
some holding to the wisdom that desired war that we might 
have perpetual peace, against the folly that clamored for 
peace that we might have perpetual war. At last the peo- 
ple of the North learned the maxim of William of Orange, 
that '■ war was preferable to a doubtful peace." 

Lewis C,\s.s spoke for the Government of his country in 
the hour when every breaker and billow of the political 
ocean was beating upon its shore. The flag of the nation 
was fired upon by those in revolt ; the forts of the Govern- 
ment were seized by armed foes ; then there came the great 
uprising in the North. The avenging genius of the North- 
men resented tlie attack on the nation and its flag. The 
State of Michigan became a giant in the fray. At the war 
meeting in Detroit, April 17, 1861, the venerable states- 
man was present. He was aided to the platform, and there 
the old man spoke for his country. He .said : 

I come to-day to do honor to the old flag that you have raised to 
the breeze, and which has maintained itself at home and abroad. I 
was born under it, and have lived under it, and I ho])e that the last 
hour that conies to all may come to me before its stars are dimin- 



Acceptance of tlic Slalue of Lewis Cass. 7.3 

ished in number. Though I recognize the duty of every American 
citizen to stantl by the Government, I hope that that Ahiiighty Being 
\vl-,o has so often and so wonderfully ke[)t us may preserve us from 
civil war, and that He will keep us still. 

•The utterances of the old man eloquent kindled the pat- 
riotic fires. His words shone through the darkness of the 
political atmosphere like characters of light. 

It is a pleasing coincidence that the next speaker was 
Cass's old political antagonist and successor in the Senate, 
Zachariah Chandler, he of ntgged words and patriotic heart, 
loving the Union and liberty. 

Then Michigan was the home of patriotism. As in an- 
cient Rome, the cry "the Republic is in danger!" stilled 
all divisions, effaced all partisanship, and men became only 
patriots. Party lines were obliterated, and the Common- 
wealth became the abode of patriotic fervor. In a few days 
the First Regiment of Michigan Volunteers was organized, 
and it was the first military organization from the West to 
defend the capital. This regiment was partl\- ccpiipped 
by Lewis Ca.ss. May I be pardoned, sir, if I mention the 
fact that a private soldier in that command in these Halls 
to-day, with loving reverence, speaks of the great statesman? 
In a fortnight the people of the metropolis again assembled 
to take counsel and prepare for the conflict. 

The sage and patriot, Lkwis Cass, the warrior who broke 
his sword on that spot nearly fifty years before rather than 
surrender it to a foreign foe, presided over the concourse of 
patriots. His words kindled anew the patriotic fires which 
burned fiercel)- through the long contest, and before the end 
Michigan sent ninety-one thousand of her sons to defend 
the Union. At this gathering he spoke for his country and 
her institutions. He declared there was but one path — 



74 AccepttDice of //ir S/a/iif of Lduis Cass. 

there was no neutral position ; all must sustain the Gov- 
ernment. He solemnly averred that he who is not for his 
country is against her. 

His words were like beacons in the upward path of man- 
kind. The)' were uttered in those moments in our history 
when they served to influence the course of events during a 
long future. They were potent in the period of the great 
war that made ambition \-irtue. He who nearly a third of a 
century before had issued the order which put down nullifica- 
tion now called the people to aid in perpetuating the Gov- 
ernment. Although he was approaching that age in life 
when shadows foretell the nearness of evening, his days 
were prolonged that he might see the flag for which he had 
given his early manhood triumphant, the Union lie had 
loved so well re-established and again form one of the main 
bulwarks of our civilization. 

During all those terrible years of conflict the aged war- 
rior watched with anxious solicitude the issue of the great- 
est war of modern times — a conflict which illustrated in 
crimson colors the grandeur, even sublimity, of American 
valor. He saw the Government restored — the epoch of 
transition from the old to the new, where servitude should 
not have dominion in a country of liberty. Ere the great 
heart ceased to throb he saw the last furrow of war closed, 
the transforming and renewing hand of time laid upon the 
fortunes of his country, and its people and the nation enter 
upon a new and greater career of progress. Peace came to 
the troubled land, and then the old man slept in the peace 
of the grave. 

The life of Lewis Cass was one illustrative of the genius 
of our institutions. His youth was one of poverty, devoid 



Acceptance of Ike Slulite of Leivis Cass. 75 

of advantages. His education was imperfect. When he at- 
tained the age of seventeen years he left his native New 
Hampshire to join the pioneers of the West. Being with 
nut means he made the journey through the mountain wikls 
from New England to Ohio on foot. In his new home the peo- 
ple recognized the resources and courage of the young man, 
starting him on the road that led to highest places. Though 
of limited education, his writings exhibit native abilitxand 
high literary taste. In all positions he was conscientious, 
industrious, and fLiithful. All his life he was simple-minded, 
pure, and admirable, attaching friends and retaining them. 
He came from the people and never forgot them. He was 
devoid of the arts of the demagogue and ignorant of jrolitical 
charlatanry. To such a fame and such a life those to come 
can well look for encouragement and inspiration. 

Michigan presents this statue to the nation. It represents 
one who blazed the way in her struggles to greatness, whose 
life was a gracious emphasis to the loftiest patriotism, u.se- 
fulness, pureness of life, and devotion to duty and country. 
More than two decades have pas.sed since he entered into 
rest. His memory was destined to wait long ibr the reward 
and vintage of his toil. When our times have melted into 
haze others will recover from distance the unstained record 
of his illu.strious career. 

We place him to-day in the .'\merican Pantheon, among 
the memorials of those of heroic renown wlio have long 
since passed to the solemn shades, with that other company 
of distinguished .service who people the silent continent of 
eternity. In that assemblage he will stand— a step to his 
left the- murdered Executive, whose career began as his 
reached its zenith; to the right another warrior in tlie rug- 



K) Ai'i'fptamv of llw Statue nf Lcicis Cass. 

ged leader of the Green Mountain boys, while to the front 
the eyes of stone forever gaze on the marble lineaments of 
the noblest of the noble, the Father of his Countr}'. Just 
bevond, the author of the Magna Charta of our rights — the 
declaration of a people's freedom — silently watches the 
constellation. The mournful and care-worn features of the 
lil)erator, the martyr President, surrounded by warriors and 
statesmen, hold eternal vigil overthe nation he lifted up into 
God's rays of freedom. Orators, commanderswho.se souls 
went up to heaven amid the clouds of battle, and tho.se who 
suffered and died, or who toiled and wrought for the eleva- 
tion of nrankind, are there. It is a noble array of the Re- 
public's best and good, a glorious company of Liberty's 
apostles. And now the circle of glory widens to admit 
Lkwis Cass to a well-earned place. He is welcome to the 
"silent senate of the dead" — a congress of fame in perpetual 
session, "whose members have received their high creden- 
tials at the hands of History and whose terms of office will 
outlast the ages." 

The State of Michigan presents the statue of Lewis Cass 
in lasting marble. It may perhaps in coming years crumble 
to dust, but his memory is indestructible by all-ravaging 
time. He will live in the sunlight of national gratitude and 
enduring fame. [Applau.se.] 



Acceptance oj the Statue oj Lezeii Cass. 



Address of Mr. Seymour. 

Tlie marble statue which Michigan has placed in Statu- 
ary Hall is that of a representative American. Born at Ex- 
eter, amidst the rngged hills of New Hampshire, where he 
received an academic education, sprung from a sire of Rev- 
olutionary fame, Lewis Cass removed with his parents in 
1799 to Wilmington, Delaware, where he became employed 
as teacher. Subsequently the family emigrated to Ohio 
and settled on a tract of land on the Muskingum River, 
near Zanesville, while Lewis remained at Marietta and 
commenced the study of law in the office of Governor Meigs. 
He married Elizabeth Spencer, of Virginia, was elected a 
member of the legislature of Ohio, and attracted the atten- 
tion of Jefferson by a communication to the President set- 
ting forth the views of the legislature in relation to the 
alleged treasonable intentions of Aaron Burr. He was- 
appointed marshal of Ohio in 1S07, which office he held 
until 1813. 

At the beginning of the second war with England he 
joined the forces of General Hull, was made colonel, and 
afterwards promoted to brigadier-general. He was stationed 
in command at Detroit and appointed governor of the Ter- 
ritory of Michigan, and as a part of his labor negotiated 
twenty-two distinct Indian treaties, and conducted the ex- 
pedition for the exploration of the Northwestern Territory, 
in which he traveled upwards of 4,000 miles. He was ap- 
pointed Secretary of War by General Jackson in 1S31, 
which position he resigned to accept that of minister to 



7.S Aacplaiicc ojtitc Statue of Lewis Cass. 

France. Elected as United States Senator in 1845, ^i*^ ^^- 
sigiied when nominated for President in 1848, and after his 
defeat was re-elected to the vSenate, and snbsequently, in 
1857, he was appointed Secretary of State by President 
Bnchanan, but resigned the position when the President 
refused to re-enforce Major Anderson and reprovision Fort 
Suuiter. His resignation terminated a public career of fifty- 
six years. His varied experience as teacher, lawyer, sol- 
dier, and statesman gave him that cosmopolitan character 
so pre-eminently American. Drifting from Eastern to front- 
ier life, engaging in difterent avocations, he acquired those 
elements of self-reliance and self-confidence which cpialified 
him for the positions of trust and responsibility offered him 
during his eventful life. His industrious habits fitted him 
for every sphere he was called upon to fill. Practice made 
him a speaker and eloquence waited on his toil. He was a 
thorough partisan and as consistent a practical Democrat 
as the constitutional mixture of personal and State rights 
would allow. He loved his race and his country. His 
inner feelings, and ofttimes his outward expressions, reached 
out to humanity and caused him to deplore, like Jefferson, 
his great teacher and idol, a condition which confronted his 
country, but which both were unable to mend. 

To keep in check two opposing forces continually seek- 
ing opiDOsite directions, and by the friction engendered 
continually requiring concessions, was the problem he al- 
ways attempted to solve on the line of constitutional right 
and unity. He was formed in that stern mold in whicli 
New England climate and New England teachings im- 
pressed and reared their hardy sons. The town meeting, 
that school and basis of New England politics, educated 



.htrpiancc <>/ lfi<- Siii/iu- ii/ Lrn'/s L'ass. 79 

him ill strict coustructiDii of delegated or I'cderal powers, 
witli a liberal belief in the large reser\-atioii of popular or 
State rights. The stud\- of the law coufirnicd his mental 
leanings, and frontier life broadened out his views of pop- 
ular and squatter rights in local and Territorial control. 
As a soldier, he was aggressive and confident. Indigna- 
tion possessed his soul when he found himself and his army 
included, as he believed, in the unnecessary capitulation of 
Hull. His military ability found insufficient scope in the 
extent or range of his militar)- experiences. The times 
were not ripe for its develoiJinent. What success might 
have been his in a wider field with larger service the 
prophets or panegyrists of his time ha\'e not intimated. 
As a diplomate, he was tenacious and defiant. He roused 
the ire of the British public by his vigorous protest against 
the quintuple treaty, and strengthened the efforts of party 
friends by his persi.stent advocacy of the line of "fifty-four 
forty" in the Oregon controversy. As a legislator, he dis- 
tineuished the commencement of his official career in the 
Ohio legislature by the framing and passage of a law au- 
thorizing the arrest of men and boats in a supposed treason- 
able expedition down the river. 

Loyalty and love of country marked the beginnings of 
his public life. In fealty to party he had few superiors. 
He critically analyzed the measures presented on the line 
of constitutional power, and attempted to smooth obedience 
by concession to popular rights. On the passage of the 
fugitive-slave law he refrained from voting, though occu- 
pying his seat in the Senate, because the amendment he 
offered was defeated allowing trial by jury if demanded in 
the State where the fugitive resided. He gave his adhesion 



80 .Icccptaiicc o/ llie Slaliie of Lcicis Cass. 

and support to the law after its passage. He regarded with 
disfavor the practical repeal of the compromise measures of 
1820, but voted for the Kansas and Nebraska bill on the 
ground of squatter and constitutional right. He favored 
the election of James Buchanan, but repudiated his inaction 
towards Anderson and Sumter. As the Declaration of In- 
dependence was the basis and groundwork of the Constitu- 
tion, so was the nullification proclamation of Andrew Jack- 
son the guide and basis of national action in the subsequent 
maintenance of the Union. 

To this creed of principles LKWIvS Ca.sS adhered, and left 
the Cabinet of Buchanan in support of a necessary construc- 
tion of Federal power preservative of the nationality of his 
country. He brooked no action or theory in early or later 
life which aimed at the impairment of Federal unity. He 
was a Unionist with all the conditions of compromise and 
interpretation which seemed necessary to the maintenance 
and enforcement of the Constitution. That instrument 
was, in his view, an absolute necessity to the continuance 
of national unity, and its preservation the only guaranty 
of substantial protection to popular rights on this conti- 
nent. He represented in his life a connecting link between 
the early development and later growth of our country, and 
left the impress of his character and statesmanship not only 
upon Michigan but the growing West. Industrious, tem- 
perate, and economical in his habits, he lived neither in 
parsimony nor ostentation. Simplicity and frugality ever 
distinguished him. 

The purity of his life was unquestioned. Cultured, .self- 
reliant, and determined, he was the embodiment of firm- 
ness and courage. vSome one wrote, "He is now ill with 



Accrpfaiicc of Ike Statue of Lcxvis Cass. SI 

the ague, the only thing that can shake him." Conserva- 
tism restrained his impulses. The key-note of his political 
career was the maintenance of the Union under the Consti- 
tution. For this his sacrifices were made. When that Con- 
stitution was assailed and the integrity of the Union threat- 
ened he left an administration he could no longer indorse, 
returned to his people and gave the influence of his char- 
acter and the wisdom of his counsel in declining years to 
his practical and only political creed. Covering himself 
with glor>' as with a garment by this crowning act of his 
official life, his name went down to history honored with 
the plaudits of his countrymen. As we review his charac- 
ter so much the more shall we revere his memory. It was 
permitted him to see the Union preserved through the arbit- 
rament of arms and catch a glimpse of its increasing strength 
when purged of the disturbing cause. 

The empty sleeve, the heav\- thud of crutch and artificial 
limb upon the floor of this Capitol are constant reminders 
of the cost and terrific character of the struggle where patri- 
otism was equaled only by sectional devotion, and which 
left us a people of freemen and marked us a nation of braves. 
That something of the extent of the conflict, should it ever 
occur, was early realized by him is evidenced by the lan- 
guage he uttered and the concessions he made ; yet when 
the day of trial came he voiced his position in no uncer- 
tain sound. His body rests in the city and vState of his 
adoption, and Michigan sends his statue to this Capitol as a 
memorial of his worth and a tribute to his official .services 
and public virtues. The cold marble will look down with 
stern and relentless gaze upon the passing crowd, and men 
in turn will revere his character and honor his patriotism 
H. Mis. 145 6 



82 Acci'plaiicc of llie S/a/iic of Lewis Cass. 

and greatness as they apjireciate his motives, and throw the 
mantle of charity on the times in which he acted. [Ap- 
plause. ] 



Address of Mr. Burrows. 

Mr. Si^eaker, when Michigan determined to avail herself 
of the invitation of the National Government to place in the 
old historic Hall of the House of Representatives statues of 
two of her most illustrious citizens, she had no difficulty in 
designating the first worthy of this national commemoration, 
and so chiseled in marble the form and features of Lewis 
Cass. Cass and Michigan ! Names linked in indissoluble 
union. His life is interwoven with her own, and his ashes 
repose in her eternal embrace. No other ot her citizens 
was so long or more honorably connected with her history; 
none other reflected greater or more enduring glory upon 
her name. Identifying himself with her interests and going 
to her defense while yet a Territory, he followed her fortunes 
in war and peace through a life-time of more than half a 
century with unwavering fidelity and unflagging zeal. 

For a period of more than fifty years he was in her service 
and the nation's; and at the close of his official career he 
continued until thehour of hisdeathhercoirnselorandfriend. 
Soldier, governor, Cabinet officer, diplomate, Senator, nom- 
inee of his party for the Presidency, premier; there was no 
place within the gift of his party he could not command; 
there was no position to which he was called that he did 
not adorn. In the judgment of the State, therefore, he fills 
the full measure of the nation's invitation, for he was " dis- 
tinguished" both in "civil and military life." 



Acceptance of tlie Slalite nf Lewis Cass. 83 

I shall not attfnpt a detailed statement of his eventful 
career. As a soldier, in the wilds of Michigan resisting the 
aggression of a foreign foe, he gave enduring proof of his 
patriotism and courage. Assigned to the civil administra- 
tion of that Territory in 1813, for eighteen years he devoted 
his energies to the advancement of her material interests, 
and laid the foundations broad and deep for her rapid devel- 
opment and future prosperity. While >-et in the discharge 
of the civil administration of the Territory he was sum- 
moned by President Jackson to a seat in his Cabinet as Sec- 
retary of War, the duties of which position, augmented In' 
difficulties with Indian tribes and the graver conditions 
growing out of the spirit of nullification, he discharged with 
signal ability. 

The steady yet firm hand with which he lield tlie United 
States military forces at Charleston, on the dividing lines 
between national supremacy and State sovereignty, main- 
taining the supreme authority of the one without infring- 
ing upon the integrity of the other ; his patriotic appeal to 
the State of Virginia to use her influence to dissuade South 
Carolina from a course fraught with such disastrous conse- 
quences to the "integrity of the Union and the cause of 
free government, " evinced the highest statesmanship and 
contributed in no small degree to the restoration of har- 
monious relations and the recognition of the supremacy of 
the lawful authority of the National Government. 

Forced to resign the War portfolio in 1S36 by reason of 
impaired health, he was appointed minister to France, in 
which position he rendered his Government most illustrious 
.service. It was during his mission to this court that Eng- 
land sought by a masterly stroke of diplomacy to secure 



84 Acceptance of the Slatiw of Lewis Cass. 

the right of search on the high seas, a riglit the y^nierican 
Government had persistently denied, under the pretext of 
suppressing the African slave-trade. It well-nigh succeeded 
in uniting the five great powers of Europe — England, Aus- 
tria, Russia, Prussia, and France — in a declaration of this 
right and ingrafting it into the code of international law. 
It was a moment of supreme peril to the Republic. Eng- 
land, Austria, and Prussia had already executed the treaty, 
and its consummation oul\- recjuired the approval of France. 
There was no time to communicate with and receive in- 
structions from the home Government ; he must take the 
responsibility of prompt, decisi\'e action or the alliance 
would be concluded. He therefore at once addressed a com- 
munication to the French minister of foreign affairs protest- 
ing in the most vigorous terms against the consummation 
of this conspiracy. In the course of that communication 
he said ; 

But tlie subject assumes another aspect when the American people 
arc tuld by one of the parties that then- vessels are to be forcibly en- 
tered and examined in order to carry into effect these stipulations. 
Certainly the American Government does not believe that the high 
].)o\vers, contracting parties to the treaty, have any wish to compel 
the United States by force to adapt their measures to its provisions 
or to adopt its stipulations. They have too much confidence in 
their sense of justice to force any such result, and they will see with 
pleasure the prompt disavowal made by yourself, sir, in the name of 
your country, at the tribune of the Chamber of Deputies, of any in- 
tention of this nature. But were it otherwise, and were it possible 
they might be deceived in their confident expectations, that would 
not alter in one tittle their course of action. Their duty would be 
the same, and the same would be their determination to fulfill it. 
They would prepare themselves, with apprehension indeed, but with- 
out dismay, with regret, but with firmness, for one of those desper- 
ate struggles which have sometimes occurred in the history of the 



Acci-ptaiicc of tlie Slatne of Lewis Cass. 85 

world, where a just cause and the favor of Providence have given 
strengtli to comparative weakness and enabled it to break down the 
|)ride of ]jouer. 

In closiiiu- his protest he said : 

It is projjer for me to add tiiat this communication has been made 
without any instruction from the United States. I liave considered 
this case as one in which an American representative to a foreign 
power should act without awaiting the orders of his Covernment. 
I have presumed, in the views I have submitted to you, that 1 ex- 
I)ress the feelings of the American Government and people. If in 
this I have deceived myself, the responsibility will be mine. As soon 
as I can receive dispatches from the United .States, in answer to my 
communication, I shall be enabled to declare to you either that my 
conduct has been approved by the President or that my mission has 
terminated. 

He supplemented this protest by a pamphlet addressed to 
the French people, in which he laid bare the pretenses of 
the English Government, and exposed her real purpose in 
conceiving and consummating the alliance. It was a doc- 
ument so forceful, so statesmanlike, so comprehensive, and 
so illustrative of the character and ability of the man that I 
can not refrain from quoting a few paragraphs therefrom : 

The right of maritime search now in discussion between the Brit- 
ish and .American Governments is a grave question interesting to all 
nations to whom freedom of the seas is dear. Its connection with 
the African slave-trade is but incidental, and can not aflect the nat- 
ure of the question. Great Britain ]jroposes to push this point, in 
order to destroy the yet existing relics of that trade. Naval suprem- 
acy she had acquired and naval sui)remacy she seeks. 

It is impossible that the intelligent Government and ]3eoiile of 
Great Britain shouhl shut their eyes to the effect of this claim of a 
right of search upon their interests, whatever motives of philanthropy 
may have led to its first suggestion To their flag it will give the 
virtual supremacy of the seas. During twenty-five years the British 



8G Acccplaiicc of tlic Statue of Lfwis Cass. 

Government has urged the Government of the United States to con- 
sent to this measure. The application has been steadily repelled, 
and now this ]irinciple of the right of search, in a time of profound 
jieace, heretofore never claimed as a question of right, for the first 
time since the last general war in Europe is claimed by Great Britain 
to be a part of the law of nations which she has both the right and 
the will to carry into effect. 

W'lio made England the great prefect of police of the ocean, 
searching and seizing at pleasure? Once establish this right of 
search, and the scenes of violence which have checkered the ocean 
for twenty years will again be renewed. The nation which should 
tamely submit to such pretensions would merit, as surely it would 
receive, the contumely of the world. 

The American Government and people will never submit. With 
them it is a question of life and death. They went to war thirty 
years ago to oppose it, when comparatively young and weak, and 
now, after having advanced in the elements of power with a ra]iid- 
iiy unknown in human history, they will not be found wanting to 
their duties and honor in the day of trial. 

An American at home or in Europe may safely predict that the 
first man impressed from a ship of his country and detained with an 
avowal of the right by order of the British Government will be the 
signal of war. A war, too, which will be long, bitter, and accom- 
jjanied, it may be, with many vicissitudes ; for no citizen of the 
United States can shut his eyes to the power of Great Britain nor to 
the gallantry of her tieet and armies. But twice the Republic has 
come out honorably from a similar contest, and with a just cause she 
would again hope for success. At any rate, she would try. Even 
if England were clearly right, as in our opinion she is clearly wrong, 
she might forbear much without any imputation upon her honor. 

She has won her way to (listinction by a thousand feats in arms, 
and what is her better title to renown, by countless feats in peace, 
triumph of genius, of skill, of industry, and of enterprise which have 
gained her a name that the proudest may envy, and that few can 
hope to equal. She has gi\'en birth to an empire in the West, an 
emj)ire whose extent and duration it passes human sagacity even 
to conjecture. There are iilanted her laws, her language, her man- 
ners, lier institutions. A thousand ties of interest unite these kin- 



AciCptauce of the Slalite of Lm'is Cass. 87 

dred people. Let P^ngland cherish tliis as her most glorious work; 
but let her recollect, too, that a spirit equal to her own animates 
the Republic, and though she may be crushed, she will not be dis- 
honored. 

The result of this protest and appeal arrested tlie course 
of negotiation, secured tlie rejection of the treaty b)' France, 
thwarted the designs of tlie English Government, averted 
the catastrophe of war, and maintained the rights and honor 
of the American Repnblic. 

Returning home from his foreign mission, he was every- 
where received with public honors and demonstrations of 
regard, and was prominently mentioned as the caiulidate 
of his party for the Presidency. Another, however, was 
chosen. In 1845 the State of Michigan elected him to the 
United States vSenate, where he won fresh laurels in the 
arena of debate with such intellectual athletes as Webster, 
Calhoun, and their compeers. In the great debate on the 
Oregon question he gave utterance to sentiments which 
should be perpetuated in the hearts of the American people: 

It ]5ains me, sir, to hear allusions to the destruction of this Gov- 
ernment an<l the dissolution of this confederacy. It pains me, not 
because they insiiire me with any fear, but because we ought to have 
one unpronounceable word, as the Jews liad of old, and that word 
is "dissolution." We should reject the fjeling from our hearts and 
its name from our tongues. 

He continued to represent the State of Michigan in the 
United States Senate until 1848, when he resigned to accejit 
the nomination of his party for the Presidency ; but failing 
of election he was returned for the remainder of his unex- 
pired term, and at its close, in 1851, re-elected for the full 
term of six years. While a firm believer in the tenets of 
his party, his entire Senatorial career was marked with a 



88 Acceptance of the Statue of Lewis Cass. 

broad statesmanship and a conscientious discharo;e of duty as 
he saw it, from tlie performance of which no flattery could 
seduce and no power swerve. 

Retiring; from the Senate on the 4th of March, 1857, he 
assumed the duties of Secretary of State in the Cabinet of 
President Buchanan, bringing to the discharge of its deli- 
cate functions the same comprehensive statesmanship which 
had marked the long course of his official life. 

The events of 1S60 and 1861 brought on a crisis in public 
affairs which forced General Cass to resign from the Cabi- 
net of President Buchanan, which he did on the 12th of 
December, i860. His letter of resignation and the Presi- 
dent's reply will best serve to disclose the reason win- he 
felt called upon to sever his connection with the adminis- 
tration: 

Department of State, Dcc^mficr 12, i860. 

Sir : The present alarming crisis in our national afiairs has en- 
gaged your serious consideration, and in your recent message you 
have expressed to Congress and through Congress to the country the 
views you have formed respecting the (juestions, fraught with the 
most momentous consequences, which are now presented to the 
American people for solution. With the general principles laid down- 
in that message I fully concur, and I appreciate with warm sympathy 
its patriotic appeals and suggestions. Wliat measures it is competent 
and proper for the Executive to adopt under existing circumstances 
is a subject which has received your most careful attention, ami with 
the anxious hope, as I well know from having participated in the de- 
liberations, that tranquillity and good feeling may be speedily restored 
to this agitated and divided confederacy. 

In some points which I deem of vital importance it has been my 
misfortune to diner from you. 

It has been my decided opinion, which for some time past I have 
urged at various meetings of the Cabinet, tliat additional troops 
should be sent to re-enforce the forts in the harbor of Charleston, with 
a view to their better defense, should they be attacked, ami that an 



Acceptance of the Slalue of Lewis Cass. 89 

armed vessel should likewise he ordered there to aid if ncrcssary in 
the defense, and also, should it be reciuired, in the collection of the 
revenue, and it is yet my opinion that these measures should be 
adopted without the least delay. I ha\c likewise urged the expedi- 
ency of immediately removing the custonvhouse at Charleston to 
one of the forts in the port and of making arrangements for the col- 
lection of the duties there by having a collector and other officers 
ready to act when necessary, so that when the office may become 
vacant the proper autiiority may be there to collect the duties on the 
(lart of the United .States. 

I continue to think that these arrangements should be imme<li- 
ately made. While the right and the responsibility of decidmg i)e- 
long to you, it is very desirable that at this perilous juncture there 
should be as far as pos.sible unanimity in your councils with a \ iew 
to safe and efficient action. I have, therefore, felt it my dut)- to 
tender you my resignation of the office of Secretary of State and to 
ask your permission to retire from that official association with yoiu- 
self and the meinliers of your Cabinet which I have enjoyed during 
almost four years without tlie occurrence of a single incident to inter- 
rupt the personal intercourse which has so happily existed. 

I can not close this letter witlioiit bearing my testimony to tlie 
zealous and earnest devotion to the best interests of the country u ith 
which during a term of unexampled trials and trouliles \ on have 
sought to discharge the duties of your high station. 

Thanking you for the kindness and confidence you have not ceased 
to manifest toward me, and with the expression of my warmest regard 
both for yourself and the gentlemen of your Cabinet, 

I am, sir, witli great resjject, your obedient servant. 

Lew. Cass. 

To the President of the United State.s. 



WASHlNr.ToN, Deioiibcr 15, i860. 
Sir : I have received your resignation of the office of Secretar\ of 
State with surprise and regret. After we had passed through nearly 
the whole term of the administration with mutual and cordial friend- 
ship and regard, I cherished the earnest liope that nothing nnght 
occur to disturb our official relations unt'' its end. Vuii Ikuc deciiJed 
difl'erently ; and I have no right to complain. 



90 Acceptance of the Statue of Leieis Cass. 

I must express my gratification at your concurrence with the gen- 
eral principles laid down in my last message, and your appreciation 
"with warm sympathy of its i)atriotic appeals and suggestions." 'i'his 
I value very highly ; and I rejoice that we concur in the opinion that 
Congress does not possess the [jower under the Constitution to coerce 
a State by force of arms to remain in the confederacy. 

The questicjn on which we unfortunately difler is that of ordering 
a detachment of the Army and Navy to Charleston, and is correctly 
stated in your letter of resignation. I do not intend to argue this 
([uestion. Suffice it to say that your remarks upon the subject were 
lieard liy myself and the Cabinet with all the respect due to your 
high position, your long experience, and your unblemished character; 
but they failed to convince us of the necessity and propriety, under ex- 
isting circumstances, of adopting such a measure. The Secretaries 
of War and of the Navy, through whom the orders must have issued 
to re-enforce the forts, did not concur in your views ; and whilst the 
whole responsibility for the refusal rested upon myself, they were the 
members of the Cabinet more directly interested. 

You may have judged correctly on this important question, and 
your opinion is entitled to grave consideration ; but under my con- 
victions of duty, and believing as I do that no present necessity exists 
for a resort to force for the (protection of the public property, it was 
impossible for me to have risked a collision of arms in the harbor of 
Charleston, and thereby have defeated the reasonable hopes which 
I cherish of the final triumph of the Constitution and the Union. I 
have only to add that you will take with you into retirement my 
heart-felt wishes that the evening of your days may be prosperous and 
happy. 

Very respectfully, yours, 

James Buchanan. 

Hon. Lewis Cass. 

Believing, as President Buchanan did, that "Congress 
does not possess the power under the Constitution to coerce 
a State by force of arms to remain in the confederacy," 
it was perfectly natural that he should refuse to re-enforce 
the United States garrison at Charleston, fearing tliat such 
a step miglit provoke hostilities on the part of South Caro- 
lina. 



Accrplancr of till- S/alitc (>l Lca'is Cass. 91 

Under his view of the Constitution, the only way to pre- 
serve the Union was to dissuade a vState from secession. 
Once seceded, the Union was hojjelessly destroyed. What- 
ever may have been tlie views of General Cas.s upon this 
question, it is certain that he believed it to be the dutv of 
the Executive of the National Government to execute its 
laws, hold its forts, and collect its revenues, and to employ 
whatever military or na\-al forces mijj^ht be necessarv to 
accomplish such end. Hence General C.\.S.S insisted that 
"without the least delay additional troops should l.)e sent 
to re-enforce the forts in the harbor of Charleston, and that 
armed vessels should be ordered there to aid in their de- 
fense and in the collection of the revenues." 

A disagreement with the Executive upon this point 
caused him to .sever his connection with the administration. 
Returning to his home in Michigan, he passed the remain- 
der of his days in the seclusion of private life, but giving 
the full weight of his counsel and influence to the national 
cause. In a speech delivered in Detroit on the 24th of 
April, 1861, he .said, among other things: 

I feel it my duty, while I can do but little, to do ;ill I can to mani- 
fest the deep interest I feel in the restoration to jieace and good 
order anil submission to the law of every [lortion of this gjorious 
Republic. Our war to-day is a ilomestic one, commenced by and 
bringing in its train acts which no right-feeling man can contem- 
plate without most ]>ainful regret. In the midst of prosperity, with- 
out a single foe to assail us, without a single injury at home caused 
by the operations of the Government to aftect us, this glorious Union, 
acquired by the blood ami sacrifices of our fathers, has been dishon- 
ored and rejected by a portion of the States composing it — a union 
which has given us more blessings than any previous government 
ever conferre<l upon man. Here, thank (iod, its ensign floats proudly 
and safely, ami no American can see its folds spread out to the 
breeze witliout feeling a thnll of pride in his heart and without re- 



92 Acceptance of the Statue of Leivis Cass. 

calling the splendid deeds it has witnessed in many a bloody contest 
from the day of Bunker Hill to our time. 

The loyal American people can defend it, and the deafening cheers 
which meet us to-day are a sure pledge that they will defend it. 
You need no one to tell you what are the dangers of your country, 
nor what are your iluties, but meet and avert them. There is but 
one patli for every true man to follow, and that is broad and plain. 
It will conduct us, not indeed without trials and sufferings, to peace 
and t(j the restoration of the Union. He who is not for his country 
i> against her. There is no neutral position to be occupied. It is 
the duty of all zealously to support the Government in its efforts to 
hring this unhapi^y civil war to a speedy antl satisfactory conclusion 
iiv the restoration in its integrity of that great charter of freedom 
liequeathed to us by Washington and his coni|)atriots. 

Ill 1866, at the ripeai^'e of eighty-four, after fifty-six years 
of public service, liis couuection with earthly affairs was 
fiualh' severed. But the uieiuory of liis public and private 
virtues remains forever to be cherished by the State and em-- 
tilated by the peoi^le. With a just pride we place his statue 
in the nation's Capitol ; his fame we intrust to his country- 
men. [Applau.se.] 



Address of Mr. Whiting, of Michigan, 

Mr. vSpeaker, Michigan, in placing in vStatuary Hall, at 
the national capital, the statue of Lkwis Ca.s.s, becomingly 
does honor to the memory of the greatest man Michigan has 
yet given to history. He was distinguished as a soldier, 
explorer, statesman, savant, and diplomate. He loved his 
State and his country and he gave them fifty-five years of 
uninterrupted and devoted service. 



Acccplaiia' oj llie Slatiic of Lcicis Cass. 9o 

He loved the old flag, and he served it well in his young 
manhood, in his prime, and in old age. He was one of the 
greatest and he was the last of our second generation of 
statesmen, sons of Revolutionary sires, who carried on the 
great Government their fathers founded. 

To Lewis Ca.s.s, as to the other great statesmen of his 
time, the Constitution was .sacred. He believed in the 
rights of the States as protected by the Con.stitution, but he 
believed also in the majesty of the Union. 

He was a strong arm of the Ciovernnient in the great 
Northwest at the dawn of the century' against the machina- 
tions of Aaron Burr and the .soldiery of Great Britain. 

He was Andrew Jackson's right hand in suppressing nul- 
lification in South Carolina. As American minister to 
France he defeated the ratification of the quintuple treaty, 
involving Great Britain's right of search on the high .seas, 
and in the last days of his long life he threw his great influ- 
ence against .secession. 

He was the last survivor of the great men who framed 
the Missouri compromise and averted war ; but when war 
came he was for the restoration of the Union. 

He resigned from James Buchanan's Cabinet because the 
President did not take that course with South Carolina 
that Andrew Jackson took a quarter of a century before. 

He gave expression to his ideas of the suppression of the 
rebellion when he sent word to Secretar)- Cameron : 

Do not defend Washington ; do not [)ut batteries on Georgetown 
Heights ; but shove your troops directly into Virginia and (luartcr 
them there. 

Lewis Ca.ss participated actively in the thrilling events 
of half a century of national history. But Michigan cher- 



94 Acceptance of llie Staliie of Lewis Cass. 

ishes his name most closely for the fostering care that he 
bestowed upon her during her years of infancy. He was 
governor of Michigan for twenty years. That venerable 
and noble Democrat, .•\lpheus Felch, wlio was contempora- 
neous with Cass in pul)lic life, says of his administration: 

These years constitute an epoch in the history of Michigan. The 
executive powers of the Government liave never been more assid- 
uously or more successfully exercised in building up a new country, 
or in' [iromoting the growth of agricultural, mechanical, or cduca- 
ti(inal interests. 

* * * In the administration of Indian affairs General Cass 
was most fortunate. He early succeeded in securing the confidence 
and respect of the Indians. The justice and kindness of his deal- 
ings did much to pacify and quiet them and dispel the fears of the 
settlers of hostile attacks. * * * His administration as gov- 
ernor was one of decided success, and while it secured great results 
to the Territory, it bound him to the people by the strongest ties of 
respect and love. He well deserved the rewards due to a faithful, 
honest, and able public servant. The statue to be placed in the Cap- 
itol is a just tribute to his memory. Michigan honors herself in hon- 
oring her most illustrious statesman. 

I may well conclude by adding to this review of LRWIS 
C.'VSS's services to his State the distinguished Judge Ross 
Wilkins's epitome of his services to his country. Judge 
Wilkins said: 

Identified with tlie State since the war of 1S12, Michigan claims 
him for her own, but the national record can not be aciurate without 
the frequent recurrence of his name in the annals of the United 
States for more than sixty-five years — from the treason of Burr to 
" the nisurreciion of i860. He, by timely action, exploded the one, 
and in hib eightieth year aided in giving the death-blow to the other. 

[Applause.] 



Acceptance of I lie Statue of Le'.eis Cass. 95 



Address of Mr, Cutcheon. 

Mr. Speaker, it is not my purpose at this late hour to in- 
dulge ill any extended remarks upon the life and character 
of Lewis Cass. Michigan's first contribution to the Na- 
tional Statuary Hall is made this day, and whoever may be 
the subject of the second there can be no doubt but that 
Lewis Cass should be the first contribution from that State. 

It is a remarkable fact, sir, that the two men who domi- 
nated the politics of the vState of Michigan for a period of 
nearly seventy years, from 1813 to 18S0, were born in the 
same State of New Hampshire, and within a few miles of 
each other iu adjoining counties. I refer to Lewis Cass 
and Zachariah Chandler. Mr. Chandler was the junior of 
Mr. Cass by about thirty }-ears, and followed him in his 
removal, at about the .same age, from New Hampshire to 
the State of Michigan. 

I shall not attempt, Mr. vSpeaker, to draw any compari- 
-son between the characters of these two men. They were 
opposites in many respects. General C.\ss was a conser\-- 
ative among conservatives, while Chandler was a radical 
among radicals. Cass was a Democrat in politics, while 
Chandler was a Whig and a Republican. Ca.ss entered pub- 
lic life almostas soon as he reached manhood. Chandler 
remained a merchant until past middle life. But these two 
men, so different in their characters and in their lives, suc- 
cessively were the master spirits of the political parties of 
the Peninsular vState. 



9(i Aiccp/aiiic (if till- SI at III- oj Lewis Cass. 

I desire to speak, sir, for a monient, in rec^ard to the statue 
itself which Michigan to-night tenders to the nation. 

And, first, in regard to it as a portrait. It was my for- 
tune as a young man, in the last years of his life, frequently 
to see Cieneral Cass, as a young man sees and looks up to a 
man of a past generation. I can say, Mr. Speaker, that the 
likeness is a most excellent one. The countenance, the 
head, and pose of the body, everything in regard to the 
statue, presents before you a likeness of General Lkwis Cass 
as I saw him in his life-time. Of course there is in it more 
of strength and vigor than he exhibited in those declining 
days, for he was already well past seventy ^-ears, the usual 
allotted span of life, before I saw him. Secondly, as a work 
of art. I do not profess to be a connoisseur of the art of the 
sculptor. I do not know what others may think of this 
portraiture of General Ca.ss ; but as for myself, when I en- 
ter vStatuary Hall, there is no figure there that strikes me 
more impressively and as more worthy of a place in this 
Pantheon of the Republic than the statue of Lewis Ca.ss. 
It is the likeness of a man of force. It has a vigor which 
speaks of positive opinions and of strong convictions. It is 
the very embodiment of his famous alliteration, "fifty-four 
fortv or fight." It reminds one of the words of Tennyson: 

Thnt tower of strength 
Which .stood four-square to all the winds that blew. 

In the few further moments allotted to me I shall not speak 
of him in political capacities as legislator, ■ marshal, gov- 
ernor, foreign minister, Senator, Secretary of State, or Pres- 
idential candidate. Others have amplified upon these. I 
shall 'speak of him in the less conspicuous aspect of his 
many-sided character — that of a soldier, or, I should say, a 



Acccptana- of llic Slalitc of Lnvis Cass. 07 

inilitar}' man. And here let nie say that in the State which 
he served so well, so long, and so honorably he was always 
known as General Cass. He was Senator ; he was gov- 
ernor ; he was Commissioner of Indian Affairs ; he was for- 
eign minister, but we alwa^'s spoke of him as General. 
General Cass was a volunteer soldier, and he was the son 
of a volunteer soldier. His father, Capt. Jonathan Cass, of 
Exeter, New Hampshire, enlisted as a private soldier in tlie 
army of the Rc\-olution immediately after the first clash of 
arms ; and it perhaps ma\- be that I have an added interest 
in him and in this ceremoin- from the fact that my grand- 
father marched in the same battalion with Jonathan Cass 
under the command of Col. Andrew McCleary to the battle 
of Bunker Hill. He was reared as the son of a soldier. 
While yet a boy he engaged in the profession of teaching — 
as so many of our great men have done — in the vState of 
Delaware. 

Following this he marched in the advance of empire to- 
wards the great West, and found himself in that modern 
mother of Presidents, the State of Ohio, at Marietta. Here 
he engaged briefl)- in the practice of the law, was elected 
to the legislature of the State, and was appointed United 
States marshal, in which office he continued from iSo6 
until IS13. 

In 1S12, anticipating war with Great Britain, the then ad- 
ministration commenced the work of putting our Canadian 
frontier in a condition of defense. Several regiments of 
volunteers were raised in the State of Ohio for the protec- 
tion of the line of the Detroit River. Among these marched 
young Cass, then thirty )-ears of age, as colonel of the 
Third Ohio \'olunteers. He joined the force of General 
H. Mis. 145 7 



OS Acccptame of tlic Slatiir of Lc-ivis Cass. 

Htill at Dayton, Ohio, and marched throngh a nearly nn- 
broken wilderness to Detroit, which was reached on Jnly 
9, 1812, and which, nnknown to him, was to be his futnre 
home and the place of his burial. 

General Hull being ordered to cross into Canada, Colonel 
Cass was the first of the American force to put foot upon 
Canadian soil. He was ordered by General Hull to make 
an advance with his regiment in the direction of Fort Mai- 
den and feel the force of the enemy. He encountered them 
at the crossing of the Canards, or, as it is called, "Aux Can- 
ards," about five miles from Fort Maiden, and there the first 
blood of the war of 1812 was spilled under the command and 
in the presence of General Cass. I will not attempt at this 
hour to go into details. Instead of advancing and captur- 
ing Fort Maiden, as Ca.ss urged General Hull, the Detroit 
River was recrossed, apparently without reason, and the 
British commander. General Brock, with a small force of 
about a thousand British soldiers and Indians, was permit- 
ted to cross that broad and rapid stream in the face of the 
superior force of General Hull without opposition. Then 
followed the surrender of Detroit, which has always been 
considered, in Michigan at least, a pusillanimous affair and 
a blot upon her history. It is said, I know not how truly, 
that so indignant was >-oung Ca.ss at this disgrace that, 
rather than surrender his sword into the hands of the en- 
emv, he broke it in t-^vo. He then hastened to Washing- 
ton to lay before the administration the history of this first 
military di.sa.ster of the war of 1812. General Hull was tried 
and convicted of cowardice and sentenced to death, but the 
sentence was never executed, and he died in peace long 
years afterward in his New England home. The contro- 



Acicplaiice of Ihc Slatuc ofLtTvis Cass. !)!) 

versy will never be settled whether he was a coward or 
a scapegoat. In the spring of 1S13 Colonel Cass was ex- 
changed and appointed colonel of the Twenty-seventh 
United States Infantry, and soon afterwards was made a 
brigadier-general. 

He rejoined the American forces under (rcneral W. H. 
Harrison at Senecaville, Ohio, and marched with him to 
Lake Erie. The way to Canada had but just been opened 
by Perry's victory, announced to the country in the laconic 
words, "We have met the enemy and they are ours." 
fycneral Harrison debarked his forces at Sisters' Island, near 
the mouth of the Detroit River, and moved upon Fort Mai- 
den, only to find it abandoned and dismantled. General 
C-ASS part'cipated in the battle of the Thames, where Gen- 
eral Proctor was overcome, iiis arm}- routed, and a large 
proportion of them taken prisoners. In this action General 
Cass acted as \'olunteer aid to General Harrison, and dis- 
tinguished himself for his intrepidit}-. General Harrison 
in his report of the battle of the Thames spoke of General 
Cass as "an officer of the highest promise." Upon the 
close of the war, or rather before the close of the war, in 
October, 1813, General Ca.sS was appointed governor of 
Michigan, which had been, partly at least, through his 
efforts, redeemed from the domination of a hostile power. 
After serving as governor of the Territory of Michigan, 
then an empire in extent, from 1813 to 1831, during which 
time he acted as Commissioner of Indian Affairs, negotiat- 
ing many treaties and visiting all parts of his domain, he 
was called into the Cabinet of General Jackson as Minister 
of War. It had been my purpose to speak somewhat at 
length in regard to his policy in that capacity as regards 
the defenses of the country. 



]00 Acceptance of tJie Slaliie of Leieis Cass. 

In the year 1836 he submitted to Congress an elaborate 
and able report on the subject of national defenses, accom- 
panied by a more exhaustive scheme of fortification by 
Colonel Totten, then Chief of Engineers. 

From the report of General Cass I make the following 
extracts. He says: 

And I would suggest diat die works which are determined on be 
]>ushed with all reasonable \igor, that our whole coast may be p'aced 
beyond the reach of injury and insult, as soon as a just regard to 
circumstances will jiermit. No objections can arise to this proced- 
ure on the groimd of expense, because whatever system may be ap- 
proved by the legislature, nothing will be gained by delaying its 
rompletion beyond the time necessary to the proper execution of the 
work. In fact, the cost will be greater the longer we are employed 
in it, not only for obvious reasons, arising out of general superintend- 
ence and other contingencies, but because accidents are liable to 
happen to unfinished work, and the business upon them is deranged 
by the winter, when they must be properly secured; and the season 
for resuming labor always finds some preparations necessary which 
would not have been required had no interruption happened. 

Uut the [)olitical considerations which urge forward this great ob- 
ject are entitled to much more weight. When once completed we 
should feel secure. There is probably not a man in the country who 
did not lo(jk with some solicitude during the jiast season at our com- 
paratively defenseless condition when the issue of our discussions 
with France was uncertain, and who did not regret that our prejiara- 
tions during the long interval of peace we have enjoyed had not 
kept pace with our growth and importance. We have now this les- 
son to add to our other experience : Adequate security is not only 
due from the Government to the country, and the conviction of it is 
not only satisfactory, but the knowledge of its existence can not fail 
to produce an iniluence upon other nations as well in the advent of 
war itself as in the mode of conducting it. If ice an- prepared to 
attack and resist, the chances <f being compelled to embark in hostilities 
will be diininiihed much in proportion to our preparation. An unpro- 
tected commerce, a defenseless coast, and a military marine wholly 
inadequate to the wants of our service would indeed holdout strong 



Acii'plaiiiC of /he S/atiu' of /.cu'i's Cuss. 101 

inilucements to other nations to convert trirting pretexts into serious 
causes of quarrel. 

Otit of the past of more than half a ceutiirv comes this 
voice of one of otir greatest statesmen admonishing- tis of 
our dereliction, and I commend now these words to the 
American Congress and to the American people: "If we 
are prepared," sa)s General Cass, " to attack and to resist, 
the chances of being compelled to embark in hostilities will 
Ije diminished mtich in proportion to onr preparation." I 
also heartily commend to those who have charge of aji- 
propriation and expenditure of money for the constrtiction 
of public works the following from the same report. He 
saj-s : 

Secondly. I think that when the plan of a work has been ap- 
proved by Congress and its construction authorized the whole a|ipro- 
priation should be made at once, to be drawn from the Treasury in 
annual installments to be fixed by the law. This mode of a]ipro- 
jiriation would remedy much of the inconvenience which has been 
felt for years in this branch of the public service. The uncertainty 
respecting the approjjriations annually deranges the business, and 
the delay which liiennially takes place in the passage of the neces- 
sary law reduces the alternate season of operations to a comiiara- 
tively short period. An exact inquiry into the effect which the pres- 
ent system of making the appropriations has liad upon the expense 
of the works would probably exhibit an amount f;ir greater than is 
generally anticipated. 

But, Mr. Speaker, I must cIo.se. The last public act of 
General C.\.ss was to resign from the Cabinet of James Buch- 
anan because his administration refused to defend tlie flag 
upon Fort Sumter against incipient rebellion. That act 
won anew for General Cass the heart of Michigan, which 
had been in part alienated b)- the compromise measures of 
i850-'54. Thotigh almost eighty years of age, he still had 



102 Acccplainr of tlir Slaiitc of Lewis Cass. 

fire enough in his heart to cause him to resent that action on 
the part of his executive cliief. I thank God, Mr. Speaker, 
that he li\ecl lon-^ enough to see that flag restored upon 
Sumter and o\er every foot of American soil. The storm 
was past ; the sun again shone out unclouded ; the Union 
that he loved and for which he had fought was restored, 
and he saw her about to enter upon her second century 
redeemed, glorified, resplendent, .secure. [Applause.] 

The Speakf:r/'/7) leuiporc. The time a.ssigned for these 
e.\ercises expired some ten uiinutes ago, but the Chair sug- 
gests that perhaps some arrangemeut can be made by which 
the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Allen], who is next 
on the list, can be heard. 

Mr. Po.SEv. I ask unanimous consent that the time for 
this evening's session be extended for ten minutes, and that 
the gentleman from Michigan [Mr. Allen] be allowed to 
proceed now for that time. 

There was no objection, and it was so ordered. 



Address of Mr. Allen, of Michigan. 

Mr. Speaker, it is a striking commentary on the rapidity 
of the age in which we live that scarcely an hour can be 
given to the consideration of the character of the man whose 
impress for good upon this great country equals that of any 
other statesman of his day. But time moves rapidly, great 
interests press heavily, and Ca.s.S, who did so much to make 
this nation might}', and who.se life will always be an exam- 
ple for the young men and the patriotic men of this coun- 



Acceptance ojllie Stalue dJ Lezc/s Cass. lO.'l 

tr\-, can have only a brief hour for liis \-irtue.s to be spoken 
of in tliis hall of the people. 

Li':wi.s Cass was governor of the Northwest Territory 
from 1813 to I S3 1 — nearly twenty years. He never was 
elected to an ofiice by the people. He held hi.s ofiice of 
governor by appointment from the President of the United 
vStates. In 1831 he was called to the Cabinet of Andrew 
Jackson as Secretary of War. His first appearance in 
pu1.)Iic in the city of Washington, fifty-si.x years ago this 
month, was to address a temperance meeting in the Hall of 
the Honse of Representatives, where his statne now stands. 
Lewis Ca.ss, who never drank a drop of intoxicating liquor 
in his life, at that early day, surrounded as he was by the 
great men of the nation, \-cr\' few of whom were not ad- 
dicted to their cups, u.sed this striking language : 

No man can indulge in this habit with inii)unity, and there is only 
one way by which ah dangt-r may be avoided, that is, by entire in- 
terdiction. 

Those were brave words to be uttered at that time in this 
city, and they indicate the mortd character and stamina of 
Lewis Ca.s.s, which stood him in hand at all times and under 
all circumstances. He showed the same sterling lo\alty to 
his convictions f)y always refusing to meet with the vSenate 
on the Lord's da>', lielieving it contrary to the divine com- 
mand to " remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." 

His residence abroad for several years made him more 
inten.sely .American. He believed that the people of this 
countr>' were immeasurably sitperior in happiness to any 
nation upon the face of the globe, and he was not afraid to 
enunciate his belief He had an American policy ; he be- 



104 Acccptaiici' of tlir Statue of Lewis Cnss. 

Heved in an American polic\' ; and lie uttered it in words 
like these : 

This country could lose nothing at home or abroad by establish- 
ing and maintaining an American policy — a policy decided in its 
spirit, moderate in its tone, and just in its objects — proclaimed and 
supported firmly. 

These are good words to speak now ; they are as true now 
as they were then, and the)' will always be true so long as 
this nation is worthy of its own respect or the respect of 
the nations of the world. 

(General Cass was not only an American but he believed in 
the American Union. He never would harbor the thought 
of a dissolution of the Union ; and his voice was always 
raised u]3on the side of the Union in the Senate, upon the 
side of the Constitution ; and among other strong words in 
the debates in those da)'s he used these: 

It pains me, sir, to hear allusions to the destruction of this Gov- 
ernment and the dissolution of this confederacy. We ought to have 
one inipronounceable word, as the Jews of old had, and that word 
is '■ dissolution." We should reject the feeling from our hearts and 
its name from our tongues. Plots and insurrections have no place 
in tliis country. \Vc have nothing to fear but ourselves. 

]\Ir. Cass was no friend to slavery, but he knew that slav- 
ery was a constitutional institution, and he did not pro- 
pose to disturb it except in a constitutional way. His two- 
fold object was to preserve the nation and to see to it that 
no institution which the Constitution sanctioned should be 
torn away by unconstittitional measures. And this consti- 
tuted one of the strongest marks of his statesman.ship and 
of his power. 

General Ca.ss never believed that the Union could be law- 
fully dissolved, and when the fiery ordeal came he was 



.luip/ai!(Y (if llif Slaliic of l.i-a'is Cass. 105 

found upon the side of the Union. His ([nick military in- 
tuition discovered the road to success, and in tlie first 
months of the war he did not hesitate to give his advice to 
tlie Government, although he was then a private citizen. 
Among other things he said to Secretary Cameron these 
words: 

Uon't defend Wasliington ; don'l put batteries on (leorgetown 
Heights; 1 Hit shove your troops directly into Virginia and quarter 
them there. 

What C.-X-SS urged should be done in the first months of 
the war had to be done before the rebellion could be sub- 
dued. 

Michigan is the home of two millions of people. There 
you will find upon every hill-top the school-house; you will 
find on almost every square mile a church. That great and 
mighty and intelligent Commonwealth has grown upon the 
sure foundation stones that IvKWiS C.A.S.S, among the other 
early and few pioneers of the great Northwest, laid. 

He was a Democrat in the broad sense of that word. He 
believed, however, that Democracy could only flourish where 
it was founded upon intelligence. Con.sequently throughout 
all his long public life, under all circtimstances, lie advo- 
cated the education of the people as the only safety for a 
republican form of government. 

Among the mighty men who have lived in this country 
Lkwis Cas.s is the peer of any one of them. He stands with 
vSeward ; he stands with the best men and the best thinkers 
of this nation ; and it is with no small degree of pride that 
I to-night am permitted to recall to the present generation 
a few of the attributes of that noble man who belonged to 
tire strong generation now passed away. He was so wise 
H. Mis. 145 8 



10() Acceptance of lite S/a/iie of Lcti'/s Cuss. 

that, unlike scores and hundreds of statesmen in this coun- 
try, he avoided the abyss that finally swamped their reputa- 
tion and destroyed their influence, because he stood firmly 
for the union of the States. 

We in the sweet name of charity forgive all south of Ma- 
son and Dixon's line who went with their section, but the 
time has never come, and never will, when a man who 
lived in the Northern States and proved himself disloyal to 
the flag can have forgiveness. Lewis Cass stood for the 
Union ; and I thank God that he in his last days was per- 
mitted to see the flag again floating over a peaceful and 
powerful country; that his dying eyes beheld the banner of 
the Union that he loved floating over the reunited States, 
never again to be broken. [Applause.] 

Mr. Chipm,\n. I now ask a vote on the adoption of the 
resolution.s. 

The resolutions were unanimously adopted. 



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